A GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF THE 
CHRISTIAN RELIGION 



THE UNIVERSITY OP CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS 



Bgente 
THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 

NEW YORK 

THE CUNNINGHAM, CURTISS & WELCH COMPANY 

LOS ANGELES 

THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 

LONDON AND EDINBURGH 

THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 

TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, PUKUOKA, SENDAI 

THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY 

SHANGHAI 

KARL W. HIERSEMANN 

LEIFZIQ 



A GUIDE 

TO THE STUDY OF THE 

CHRISTIAN RELIGION 



By 

William Herbert Perry Faunce, Shailer Mathews, J. M. Powis 
Smith, Ernest DeWitt Burton, Edgar Johnson Goodspeed, 
Shirley Jackson Case, Francis Albert Christie, George Cross, 
Errett Gates, Gerald Birney Smith, Theodore Gerald Soares, 
Charles Richmond Henderson, and George Burman Foster 



Edited by Gerald Birney Smith 




THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 






Copyright 1916 By 
The University of Chicago 



All Rights Reserved 



Published November 1916 



/. 



NOV 25 1SI6 



Composed and Printed By 

The University of Chicago Press 

Chicago. Illinois, U.S.A. 



)CI,A445798 



PREFACE 

That Christianity is today passing through one of the 
most significant transformations in its history is a fact appar- 
ent on every hand. The present generation has come into 
full consciousness of the new world which has arisen as a 
result of the discoveries and inventions of the past century 
or more. New social and industrial conditions, new acquaint- 
ance with the non- Christian world of today, a more thorough- 
going knowledge of the vast stretches of human history, and 
a new science with its promise of a hitherto undreamed-of 
mastery of the forces of the universe, have led to a new 
appreciation of the task of the Christian church. 

Thus the divinity school today is attempting to organize 
the education of ministers of the gospel and of religious 
teachers and missionaries with reference to many situations 
and problems which formerly did not exist. The history of 
Christianity can no longer be studied in isolation from the 
total history of which it is a part. The study of the Bible 
must be undertaken with a full understanding of all that is 
involved in the processes of historical criticism. Systematic 
theology must consider religious beliefs in relation to the 
modern scientific and philosophical ideals which are regnant. 
The department of practical theology must deal with the 
bewildering needs occasioned by the shifting habits of people 
in modern industrial and spiritual life. An entirely new 
realm of theological training has been organized in order to 
prepare men to understand the social problems which are so 
intimately related to the rehgious life. 

Aside from discussions of the ^'higher criticism" there 
has been almost no literature from which one could learn how 
a modern divinity school is attempting to meet the demands 



VI PREFACE 

of our age. There has been no work in English on theological 
encyclopedia for twenty years. Such treatises as Crooks 
and Hunt, Theological Encyclopaedia and Methodology (New 
York: Phillips and Hunt, 1884); Cave, Introduction to The- 
ology and Its Literature (Edinburgh: Clark, 1886, 2d ed., 
1896); and Schaff, Theological Propaedeutic (New York: 
Scribner, 1893), were all excellent works in their day. But 
because some of the most important phases of modern theo- 
logical education have been organized since these appeared 
they cannot furnish the information needed here, nor can they 
indicate the literature which has appeared during the past 
twenty years. The warm welcome which was accorded to 
Wernle's EinfUhrung in das theologische Studium (Tubingen: 
Mohr, 1908, 2d ed., 191 1) suggested to the editor the desira- 
biHty of a volume in EngHsh which should deal with the 
present situation in theological education. 

It is much more difficult today to prepare an introduction 
to the study of theology than it was a generation ago. For- 
merly it was possible for one broadminded scholar to cover 
the entire field with reasonable thoroughness. But today 
specialization has advanced so far that no one man is compe- 
tent to deal with all the branches of learning tributary to a 
sound theological education. This is perhaps the main reason 
why no one has recently attempted to prepare any such 
survey. 

Again, some phases of theological scholarship have lately 
been passing through a transition period. During much of 
the past quarter-century men have been conscious of the 
fact that old methods and ideals must be modified, but they 
have not always been sure just where the changes would lead. 
It is only within the past decade that the full impHcations of 
the historical method have begun to be realized with clearness. 
Until scholars came to feel at home in the use of this method 
they were not in a position to formulate constructive prin- 
ciples of theological study based on it. 



PREFACE Vll 

The present volume has been prepared in recognition of 
the situation above indicated. In order to do justice to the 
specialized character of scholarship, a group of men has been 
asked to co-operate, each contributing an exposition of the 
problenis and the methods of study in the field in which he 
himself is competent to speak. 

There has, of course, been no attempt to secure absolute 
uniformity of views. The only common presuppositions of 
the various portions are the acceptance of the historical 
method and the belief that the interpretation of Christianity 
must be in accord with the rightful tests of scientific truth- 
fulness and actual vitality in the modern world. If certain 
diversities of opinion appear, the volume will only reflect 
the spirit of freedom which prevails in theological scholarship 
today as well as in other fields of research. It is a hopeful 
sign, however, that the historical method, with all its freedom, 
yet induces a typical attitude and spirit, so that a course of 
study dominated by this point of view will attain a consistency 
which may form the basis for positive convictions concerning 
Christianity and for fruitful constructive work in the church 
of Jesus Christ. 

This volume is intended to be a guide to the study of the 
Christian religion for Protestants. It does not attempt to 
take the place of actual study or to furnish a brief compendium 
of information. It is prepared primarily to aid students to 
understand the meaning of the various aspects of education for 
the Christian ministry. But it will be perhaps of even greater 
value to pastors who wish to keep in sympathetic touch with 
the latest scholarship, but who find it difficult to obtain in 
convenient form the requisite information. Brief bibliog- 
raphies are appended to each section, noting especially 
valuable works as an aid to those who wish to undertake an 
intelHgent study of any particular topic. They are not in- 
tended to be exhaustive, but merely to start the student or 
interested reader on his quest. 



viii PREFACE 

It is the hope of the editor and of the contributors that 
the volume may help toward the understanding of the fruitful 
and inspiring work which is being done in the realm of theo- 
logical scholarship today, and may stimulate those who are 
interested in the progress of theological education and in the 
thorough preparation of ministers of the gospel to a cordial 
co-operation in the great task before us. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Preparation in College for the Study of Theology i 
By William Herbert Perry Faunce, President of Brown 
University 

II. The Historical Study of Religion 19 

By Shailer Mathews, Professor of Historical and Comparative 
Theology and Dean of the Divinity School, University of 
Chicago 

HI. The Study of the Old Testament and the Religion of 

Israel . 81 

By J. M. Powis Smith, Professor of Old Testament Language and 
Literature, University of Chicago 

IV. The Study of the New Testament .' . . . . . 163 
By Ernest DeWitt Burton, Professor and Head of the Depart- 
ment of New Testament Literature and Interpretation, 
University of Chicago, and Edgar Johnson Goodspeed, 
Professor of Biblical and Patristic Greek, University of 
Chicago 

V. The Study of Early Christianity 239 

By Shirley Jackson Case, Professor of New Testament Inter- 
pretation, University of Chicago 

VI. The Development and Meaning of the Catholic 

Church . . ' 327 

By Francis Albert Christie, Professor of Church History, 
Meadville Theological Seminary 

VII. The Protestant Reformation 357 

By George Cross, Professor of Systematic Theology, Rochester 
Theological Seminary 

VIII. The Development of Modern Christianity . . .429 
By Errett Gates, Assistant Professor of Church History in the 
Disciples' Divinity House, Unive rsity of Chicago 
ix 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

IX. Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics . . . 483 
By Gerald Birney Smith, Professor of Christian Theology, 
University of Chicago 

X. Practical Theology 579 

By Theodore Gerald Soares, Professor of Homiletics and 
Religious Education and Head of the Department of Practical 
Theology, University of Chicago 

XI. Christianity and Social Problems 677 

By the Late Charles Richmond Henderson, Professor of 
Practical Sociology, University of Chicago 

XII. The Contribution of Critical Scholarship to Minis- 
terial Efficiency 729 

By George Burman Foster, Professor of the Philosophy of 
Religion, University of Chicago 



I. PREPARATION IN COLLEGE FOR THE STUDY 
OF THEOLOGY 

By WILLIAM HERBERT PERRY FAUNCE 
President of Brown University 



ANALYSIS 

PAGES 

1. The Relation of the College to Theological Education. — ^What 
should the intending minister study? — ^Languages. — Science, — 
History. — Psychology. — Social sciences. — Philosophy. . . 3-12 

2. Unofficial Aspects of College Life. — The dangers of social 
dissipation. — ^Acquaintance with religious leaders. — Giving rehgion an 
opportunity to be seen at its best. — ^The practical expression of 
religious activity. — ^The religious responsibility of college teachers 12-18 



I. PREPARATION IN COLLEGE FOR THE STUDY 
OF THEOLOGY 

The value of any study depends chiefly, not on its intrinsic 
content, but on the content of the student's mind. What we 
find in a subject depends on what we bring to it. The horse 
and his rider look on the same landscape, but they do not see 
the same things. 

Several men may enter on a course of theological study 
in the same institution at the same time. One brings a philo- 
sophic mind, trained to the search for truth, alert to all 
those subtle- distinctions in thought that create far-reaching 
differences in life. Another man brings only a desire to get 
''sermon outlines" and secure a pulpit. A third brings a 
sociological training, and finds — or rather seeks — in every 
creedal formula primarily a means of social uplift. A fourth 
man brings an intellect stiffened by disuse, and finds in 
theology a tedious discussion of things that do not count. 
The theological teacher faces an almost impossible task when 
he is asked to deal with minds undeveloped, or closed by 
prejudice, or unfired with any real passion for truth. A 
prepared student will receive and assimilate more in a single 
year than a crude mind can admit in many years. 

The preparation for theological study may be either 
indirect and unconscious or direct and intentional. Indirect 
preparation includes all that we mean by the development of 
personality, mental growth, spiritual experience. All that 
goes to make a deeper, richer inner life inevitably makes a 
more successful student of theology. This unconscious 
preparation is of value in any calKng, but especially in one 
where all that a man achieves depends absolutely on what 
he is. Augustine found inspiration and enlargement in the 

3 



4 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

writings of Cicero; Wesley was equipped for religious leader- 
ship by the culture and the friendships of Oxford; Henry 
Drummond's training came through the scientific laboratory. 
Men fulfil themselves in many ways. Whatever brings to 
the student increase of human sympathy, insight, mental 
poise, fearlessness, power to examine candidly and to believe 
whole-heartedly, whatever broadens and deepens personality, 
is a true '^ preparatory school" for religious leadership. 
Such preparation may come through cathedral or camp meet- 
ing, through library or observatory, through the sick-room, 
as witness Thomas Chalmers and Frederick Robertson, or 
through residence on the frontiers of civilization, as witness 
Jonathan Edwards in the Connecticut Valley and Moffat in 
South Africa. A personality widened by habitual observa- 
tion and deepened by poignant experience is no longer a "tin 
dipper to be filled in a classroom," but is already in some 
measure prepared for the great question: How shall we 
think of God ? 

THE RELATION OF THE COLLEGE TO THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION 

But here we have to do with that direct and intentional 
preparation which today is obtained through the college. 
Once the American college was organized chiefly for the 
training of ministers, and no theological seminary existed in 
this country. Later a ''theological course" was organized in 
some colleges. Still later the theological seminaries were 
often founded remote from any college or university and 
marked by quite a different spirit. Theological education, 
like medical education, suffered a real loss through this entire 
segregation of its students and studies from the broader uni- 
versity world. Now the seminary is becoming part of the 
university, either by actual incorporation in it, as a "divinity 
school" or "school of religion," or through close afiiliation and 
co-operation. But there must be a clear sequence of studies 
as the student passes from his college into his professional 



THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY 5 

school If the student in college tries to anticipate his 
theological studies and take strictly professional courses, then 
in the divinity school he will have to turn about and seek the 
fundamental and liberal courses which he should have taken 
in college. Thus he puts the cart before the horse. He 
turns his college into a poor theological school and his theo- 
logical school into a very superficial college. 

The preparation offered in college is given in two ways: 
through the curriculum of the college and through its atmos- 
phere and ideals. Let us first consider the values to be 
found in the college curriculum. 

What should the intending minister study in college? — 
What studies should the prospective theological student 
pursue in college or in the university ? What may he expect 
to derive from those four years ? Out of the vast and varied 
menu offered by the modern university — from Egyptology 
to calculus, from '' chipping and filing" to the Divine Comedy — 
what should he select as of most importance for his future 
career ? Any attempt at a bare list of studies would plunge 
us into difhculties. Some of the courses we might include are 
not given in all colleges. Many are open to debate. Any 
mere Hst would evoke instant dissent. But there are some 
clear principles of choice. There are certain values which a 
student must not miss if his college course is to be a real 
success. What are they ? What should any student expect 
to acquire in the modern college ? 

Languages. — The student must acquire some of the 
indispensable tools of knowledge. He must master his 
own mother-tongue and secure a serviceable knowledge of 
some other tongues as well. He must steep himself in the 
work of the best English writers until he, too, learns to write. 
He must study his own vernacular, its marvelous resources, 
its wealth of expression, its flexibility and force, its power to 
appeal and illuminate and persuade, until he makes the 
language a part of himself. He must find out whether he is 



6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

able to write an important telegrani in ten words, or a com- 
plete address in as few words as Lincoln used at Gettysburg. 
One of the greatest joys that can come to any student is the 
joy of self-expression in English that cannot be misunderstood. 
It is like the joy of the hunter when his arrow or his bullet 
finds the mark. Half the theological disputes of the world 
come from inability to state what we mean, or to understand 
what others have stated. Definition is the first essential in 
debate, and definition means the precise expression of exact 
thought. Ability to read, even in translation, an ancient 
document, like the Apostles' Creed, or the prophecy of Amos, 
and find out what it meant to the men who first read it, is one 
of the first qualifications of a religious teacher. Slovenly, 
hazy language constantly befogs the mind and hides the truth 
or repels men from it. ''Let your yea be yea and your nay, 
nay," is the basis of all good writing. A good style is as 
a pane of clear glass, itself invisible, reveahng all things as 
they are. 

Latin and Greek are indispensable to the theological 
student. Latin still constitutes the best-known means of 
acquiring the linguistic sense, the power to analyze thought 
and to discriminate and compare ideas, while Greek, as the 
language of the New Testament, is a sine qua non. Com- 
mentaries can give us the meaning of a passage, but not the 
sense of reaHty and vitality that exhales from the original. 
Most universities now offer courses in beginners' Greek for 
those students who could not, or did not, begin that study in 
the high school. It is quite possible in three or four years 
of the study of Greek to get beyond habitual use of com- 
mentaries on the New Testament and to be able to form an 
independent judgment. Surely three hours a week for three 
years is a small price to pay for such independence. But 
these arguments apply with far less force to the study of 
Hebrew, both because the Old Testament is a less primary 
source of Christian ideals and because of the far greater 



THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY 7 

difficulty of reaching independent conclusions in Semitic 
scholarship. If Hebrew is to be studied at all, it should not 
be allowed to crowd out the fundamental liberal studies of the 
four college years. 

French and German are both of value to the man who 
would be a workman that needs not to be ashamed. While 
a working pastor may do without them, the theological 
scholar must have a reading knowledge of both tongues — 
with the emphasis upon the German. The pioneers of 
theological thought are still European, and religious leaders 
in America cannot wait for the possible translation of all 
important books. Valuable articles in European periodicals 
are often not translated at all. Latin and Greek, French and 
German — a reasonable working knowledge of these four 
tongues, in addition to the mastery of English, every theo- 
logical student should carry away from his college. And 
such knowledge means more than skill in grammatical forms ; 
it means literary appreciation, interpretation, insight. 

Science. — ^A second gift of the college to the student 
should be an understanding of what the modern world means 
by scientific method. This is something quite different from 
acquaintance with specific sciences. The student cannot 
become at once astronomer, geologist, chemist, and botanist. 
But a single thorough course in any one of those sciences may 
furnish him the key to all the rest. The method by which 
men of science approach all problems, the intellectual process 
by which they discover truth, can and rnust be made thor- 
oughly familiar to any man who would teach the modern 
world. And the method cannot be learned from books; it 
can be learned only in the laboratory, through actual experi- 
ment and research in the world of material facts and laws. 
The Yale professor of the last generation who before perform- 
ing an experiment in physics would often say, ''Now, gentle- 
men, we are going to ask God a question," indicated the 
only real way of asking about physical truth. If prayer is 



8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

experiment, none the less is experiment prayer — the prayer of 
the scientific man that avails much. Whether the student shall 
study one science or several sciences depends on his time and 
taste. Out of a single course he may acquire a method of in- 
vestigation which will mold his entire life. He should, how- 
ever, remember the distinction between the physical or exact 
sciences, like physics and astronomy, largely mathematical, 
and the natural sciences, like biology and botany, which deal 
with the form and structure and growth of living organisms. 
For the future preacher, whose message is to be "life more 
abundantly," biology, the study of the forms and methods of 
life, is supremely important. 

History. — Another gain to be expected from a college 
course is what we may call the historical approach. This is 
vital in all modern thinking. Our fathers thought chiefly 
in static terms. Their method was deductive and dogmatic. 
In proving the existence of God they used the ''cosmological 
argument" or the "ontological argument," rather than the 
argument from experience as found in the story of humanity. 
They proved the inspiration of the Bible from the probability 
that a good God would reveal himself, or from the necessity for 
such a revelation, seldom asking whether the Bible had 
actually been an inspiring power in the life of humanity. 
But now we have come to see that we never understand 
anything until we know how it came to be. The history of a 
thing is the thing. A new sense of time has dawned upon 
men since Darwin lived, as a new sense of space came to men 
through Copernicus. To trace the growth of an institution 
like the English Parliament, or a composite book like the Book 
of Psalms, or an idea like the idea of sacrifice, is the only 
possible way to get at its meaning. The concept of evolution 
— now accepted by nearly every teacher in northern colleges 
and denounced by nearly every evangelist — has come to mean, 
not a theory or dogma, but a point of view, a mode of con- 
ceiving the world. We see the world no longer as a fact 



THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY 9 

established by fiat, but as. a process, an unfolding of the 
indwelling spirit. We ask of the Bible, How was it put 
together ? of the church, What have been its stages of develop- 
ment ? of the most sacred ceremonies. What was their original 
form and meaning ? of the Book of Revelation, What did it 
mean to men of its own time? This historical approach is 
characteristic of all intellectual effort today. It traces effects 
to their causes, and thus reconciles our divergences and 
softens our asperities. Instead of fighting our opponent, we 
are occupied in explaining how he came to be. The spirit of 
tolerance and comprehension in the modern world is largely 
the result of the historical approach to every vital problem. 

Psychology. — A fourth gift of the college should be 
what we might call the psychological approach. The study 
of all human institutions and products leads us back to the 
study of man himself. What is behind the eye is more 
wonderful than anything in front of it. We cannot under- 
stand science, art, literature, or religion except as we 
understand the human mind — how it works, how it grows, how 
it misleads us, how it finds and rests in the truth. ''He 
knew what was in man" — that was the foundation of all He 
did for man. ''A man that told me all things that ever I 
did" — such was the naive description of Jesus by a stranger. 
The study of psychology has transformed modern education. 
Its theories regarding memory, imagination, attention, and 
habit lie at the basis of our public-school methods. The 
study of psychology has given new meaning to the ''varieties 
of religious experience" and has shown us that the "conver- 
sions" which once were deemed fantastic or mythical are 
actual and normal changes in the soul. Psychology helps 
us to understand revivals, true and false, to explain recent 
growths, like Christian Science, and the existence of all the 
various denominations. It has important contributions yet 
to be made to church services, missionary methods, and social 
reform. No student can afford to spend four years in college 



lO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

without some training in the methods of psychology. Through 
those methods he will find most helpful approach to every 
present problem of thought or action. 

Social sciences. — Such study easily leads into an appre- 
ciation of the ''social consciousness." So far as theology is 
still purely individualistic it is an alien in the world, for the 
world has become — in the philosophical sense — socialistic. 
''When ye pray, say, 'Our','' is ancient teaching, but the world 
has only recently begun to say "our" in philanthropy, in 
municipal government, in economic theory, in international 
intercourse. A purely individualistic theology cannot cope 
with the needs of a socialized world. "What shall I do 
to be saved?" is a question now being asked, not only by 
single persons, but by corporations threatened with dissolu- 
tion, by villages drained of their young life, by cities con- 
victed of anti-social sins, by nations that have lost their 
idealism and so their moral leadership. 

Yet it is extraordinary how many of the most famous books 
of devotion lack the social consciousness. Often the acute 
consciousness of God has absorbed all consciousness of any 
relation to the struggling world. Bunyan's Pilgrim thrusts his 
fingers into his ears, that even the cry of wife and children 
may not hinder his passion to escape. Thomas a Kempis' 
Imitation of Christ is wholly unconscious of any duty to change 
human conditions anywhere. " Other- worldliness " marks 
the older hymnology, majestic in its perception of the divine 
sovereignty, but conceiving our chief human duty as "a never- 
dying soul to save and fit it for the sky." But the modern 
college thinks of religion in terms of action. The average 
student makes feeble response to the prudential motive, 
reserving his deepest enthusiasm for altruistic effort. He 
thinks of the college, not as a means of separation from the 
common herd, but as a means of service to his generation. 
No man can be a competent religious teacher today unless 
he is shot through by that corporate consciousness, that sense 



THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY ii 

of social responsibility, which marks our time. Hence the 
studies listed under social and political science, economics, 
sociology, international law, etc., are of much importance 
for any man who aspires to be a religious guide. 

Philosophy. — Not the least of the gifts of the college is 
what we may call orientation in philosophy. No one can 
hope to become a master of metaphysics while in college. But 
he may, working under the guidance of an experienced 
teacher, become acquainted with the chief theories regarding 
the origin and mode and meaning of the universe and man's 
place in it. He can at least acquire a ''set of pigeonholes" 
to which he can refer all the vagrant theories of our own time. 
He can learn the difference between materialism and 
idealism, between nominaHst and realist, between Stoic 
and Epicurean, between the Kantian and the Hegelian. 
Then, confronted with some new theory or fad or heresy 
sweeping over the land, he can say: "I know where that 
idea emerged centuries ago, and I understand its implications 
and sure results." Thus, unperplexed and unterrified, he 
can deal with the new because he is familiar with the old. To 
perceive the philosophic origin and outcome of current 
religious theory is an enormous aid to a religious leader. 

Are we asking too much when we expect these great gifts 
from the college of our time? Let us remember that these 
are gifts of quality of spirit, not quantity of information. 
The thing we really ask of the college is simply a point of 
view and a standard of judgment. That standard is not to be 
gained by absorbing quantities of fact; nor is it to be gained, 
on the other hand, simply by fervid piety. It is sometimes 
said that the primary object of the college is character. 
But that is the object also of the family and the church and the 
state. All human institutions, of course, aim at character. 
The college differs from the other institutions in that it aims 
at character through intellectual interests and disciplines, at 
character achieved, not through rules, not through exhortation. 



12 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

not through worship, but through studies. It nourishes 
those '^ intellectual virtues" out of which the virtue of the 
citizen, the teacher, the prophet, must inevitably grow. If 
the college can give us interests and enthusiasm and a right 
intellectual method, it has already furnished the foundations 
of both character and scholarship. 

UNOFFICIAL ASPECTS OF COLLEGE LIFE 

But the chief values of the modern college often lie, unfor- 
tunately, quite outside the curriculum. They lie in the 
atmosphere that surrounds and pervades, in the ideals that 
summon and inspire the student body. They are impalpable 
and indescribable, yet, like the enveloping air, with its 
pressure of fifteen pounds to the square inch, they exert a 
constant control. The chief educative power of any institu- 
tion comes through the constant association of the students 
with one another and with the faculty. The college is 
primarily a '' society of scholars," an association for mutual 
benefit. The daily give-and-take of many associated minds 
creates a psychological climate. The student can say, with 
Ulysses: ''I am a part of all that I have met." When he is 
first ushered into the new associations of the perilous Fresh- 
man year, he is likely to be dazzled and distracted. What 
should be his attitude toward all the complex social life of the 
college ? 

The dangers -of social dissipation. — He should seek 
simplicity^ — in mode of life, in daily program, in personal ambi- 
tion. Our college life has no longer the dangers of a vacuum, 
as it had fifty years ago, but the dangers of a plenum. Silly 
pranks have largely disappeared, but dissipations of energy, 
distractions of thought, side-shows of every kind, have multi- 
plied immensely. The student's room is a reception room; 
his time is seldom his own; he is ''out" for positions and 
offices — athletic, musical, literary — and the college life allows 
little time for self-recollection and self -acquaintance. Here 



THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY 13 

is a danger quite as real as the danger of vice and crime — • 
a temptation against which the future religious teacher must 
resolutely set himself at the beginning. Paul's education was 
partly at the feet of Gamaliel; but its most important part 
was acquired when he ''went away into Arabia" to think out 
the meaning of his own experience. The chief lack of the 
college man today is time to think. 

Acquaintance with religious leaders. — The student should 
plan for contact during college years with great religious 
leaders and movements. Such leaders ought to be found 
among the members of the faculty, and the fact that they are 
so seldom found there should occasion us much searching of 
heart. The emphasis of the last quarter-century is on 
research rather than on personality. The division of knowl- 
edge into small sections called ''departments," the reaction 
from the old dogmatism to universal interrogation, the 
absorption of teachers in the making of textbooks rather than 
in the making of men — all these things have tended to repress 
and cripple religious leadership on the part of our college 
teachers. But the opportunity for such leadership is greater 
than ever before. The fact that teachers are no longer 
officers of discipline gives them a new advantage. The fra- 
ternal in place of the old paternal relation is distinctly helpful 
to religious conference. The college teacher may be far 
closer to his students than any college president ever can be. 
The fact that the average church sermon makes slender appeal 
to the average student emphasizes the need of special effort 
at religious guidance by the college faculty. What the stu- 
dents need for their religious training is not so much formal 
addresses as discussion under guidance. They need to hear 
a religious address with a chance to "answer back," to express 
their own difficulties, and to grapple with some older, wiser 
mind in frank discussion. Many members of our faculties 
are able and willing to do this, but they wait for invitation 
from the students. The formation of voluntary classes for 



14 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

biblical study, for ethical and religious conference, must 
originate with the students themselves. 

Giving religion an opportunity to be seen at its best. — 
Students may also do much to bring college life into contact 
with the dominating personalities of the religious world. 
The college Christian Association can easily secure the help 
of the administration in bringing into college halls present 
leaders in civic reform, in foreign missions, in biblical inter- 
pretation, in Christian education. A ten-minute address 
at morning chapel by some man from the heart of Africa, 
from the slums of Chicago, from the medical missions in 
South India, may give more inspiration than an hour's ora- 
tion. At one university recently each of the formal vesper 
services of the winter was followed by an informal conference 
of the preacher with the students in the evening. The 
announced subject of the conference was in each case intro- 
duced by the preacher in a five-minute address. Then the 
students, sitting round him in large semicircle, turned upon 
him a fusillade of sincere and searching questions that lasted 
for an hour and a half. At the end of that time they knew 
the preacher as no sermon could reveal him, and he knew the 
students as few members of the faculty know them. One 
conference on ''Religious Journahsm" gave the students an 
inside view of an editor's office. One on ''The College Man's 
Idea of the Church" gave them the apologia pro vita sua of a 
distinguished American bishop. One on "Opportunities 
in the Farther East" gave an interpretation of China and 
Japan from one who had spent his life there. Another on the 
"College Man's Idea of God" gave a noted Christian phi- 
losopher a chance to insert a whole system of theology into 
the students' minds without their knowing it. The service 
rendered among our colleges by Henry Churchill King, 
John R. Mott, Robert E. Speer, Lyman Abbott, Francis G. 
Peabody, and a score of other leaders is unsurpassed in lasting 
importance. It has meant the interpretation of the Kingdom 



THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY 15 

of God into the students' own vocabulary, into the terms 
and concepts which they hear every day in the classroom. 
Students and faculty should unite in bringing such men 
into intimate and repeated contact with the entire student 
body. 

It is strange that alumni possessing deep rehgious con- 
viction so seldom return to assist in the religious development 
of their own colleges. Alumni of athletic prowess are con- 
stantly called back to ^' coach the team." Alumni with 
musical gifts are constantly returning to advise or train the 
musical clubs. Why should not the alumni who have the 
deepest religious life constantly be called back to inspire and 
direct undergraduate religion ? Here is an almost unoccupied 
field. H-ere is a work every prospective religious leader may 
do while in college. 

The practical expression of religious activity. — But con- 
ference and discussion are not enough. There must be train- 
ing in altruistic and idealistic effort. Four years of mere 
reception, four years of self-centered culture, are a poor 
preparation for a life of real ministration to the world. There 
must be outgo as well as intake. Hence the Christian stu- 
dents in every college should be harnessed for some form of 
human uplift. Whether it is in church or social settlement, 
in boys' club or children's playground, in reading-room or 
gymnasium or evening school, matters little. Somewhere 
and somehow' the student must express his faith through 
action or his faith will dwindle. Classroom lectures and dis- 
cussions on poor-relief, on municipal reform, on the psychology 
of the crowd, are made real and vital when the student 
attempts to help and serve some needy neighborhood. A 
day of prayer for colleges is trebled in value when followed by 
the sincere endeavor of the students to uplift the community 
around them. Paralyzing doubts are cleared away by 
action, and of many a venerable enigma the student learns to 
say Sohitur ambulando — ^'it is solved by going forward." 



1 6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

The religious responsibility of college teachers. — A most 
encouraging sign of the times is the increasing reahzation 
of college teachers and officers that they are responsible, 
not only for departments and courses of study, but also for 
the temper and climate of their institution. It is vain 
to offer knowledge in bewildering variety unless we can also 
offer a contagious enthusiasm, a noble fellowship in things of 
the spirit, a dominating idealism, a faith that the things which 
are unseen are eternal. "What we need," says an oriental 
proverb, "is not only a filled va;se, but a kindled hearth." The 
kindling of youth's imagination and desire is more than all 
possible furnishing of tools and technique. Those who teach 
and administer in college life have a constant obligation to 
discover and inspire the potential leaders of the spiritual 
life in the next generation. When the college finds within its 
walls these embryo prophets, it should bestow on them the 
priceless gifts of intellectual enthusiasm, sincere devotion to 
truth, familiarity with the ruling ideas of the modern world, 
and eagerness for the higher ranges of theological study which 
are to follow. 

Note. — ^The Religious Education Association a few years ago 
appointed a committee to recommend a course of study for college 
students intending to study for the ministry. The report of this com- 
mittee is herewith given, printed by permission from Religious Education. 

PRE-THEOLOGICAL STUDY IN COLLEGE 

Report of the Committee appointed by the Religious Education 
Association, Shailer Mathews, Chairman 

1. Your Committee at first attempted to draw up a complete 
curriculum for the four college years. Such a curriculum, however, was 
seen to be impracticable on account of the different studies, number of 
hours, and other conditions required by different colleges for their degrees. 
It seemed best to the Committee, therefore, to draw up a list of courses 
which are especially adapted to prepare men for work in theological 
seminaries. 

2. It has seemed advisable, further, to distinguish between two 
classes of courses: those which seem absolutely essential in training 



THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY 17 

for practical efficiency in the ministry (List A), and those which are 
highly important for the development of the more technically theological 
efficiency of the ministry (List B). 

It is the recommendation of the Committee that the studies in List A 
be pursued by all students for the ministry, and that course B be pur- 
sued by those who wish to prepare themselves in the fullest degree for the 
philological and exegetical studies of the seminary curriculum. In so far 
as the student's aptitude and opportunities permit, the Committee 
would suggest that the studies in both lists be pursued. 

3. As regards the amount of time to be given to each study, the 
Committee has chosen as its unit a course running three hours a week 
for an entire college year. In colleges where a given study fills a differ- 
ent number of hours per week the adjustment will easily be made. 

The Committee further assumes that the total number of hours per 
week required in a college will not exceed 15 or 16. 

The Committee has deemed it best to leave a certain number of 
units free for electives, permitting more thorough study of such courses 
of the suggested curriculum as particularly appeal to a student. 

4. The student is advised to consider the instructor as well as 
the course. In case a course is given by an inferior instructor, the Com- 
mittee advises that the student substitute for it some other course in the 
corresponding group in the other list, or, if more advisable, even in some 
subject not suggested. It is the opinion of the Committee that the influ- 
ence of the teacher is as important as the material of a course. 

List A 

Courses Recommended for the Practical Efficiency of the Ministry 

I. PREPARATION IN LITERARY EXPRESSION 

Unit of 3 Hours 
per Week for Year 

English Composition and Rhetoric i 

Literature (principally English) i 

Public Speaking (art of expression, vocal training, debating, etc.). . . i 

The student should take as much as possible of such work even 
when no academic credit is given for it. 

II. LANGUAGES 

At least one foreign language, preferably Greek 2 

III. NATURAL SCIENCE 

Biology I 

Psychology i 



1 8^ GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

IV. SOCIAL SCIENCES 

Unit of 3 hours 
per Week or Year 

History 2 

Political Economy ^ 

Study of Society (introduction to the study of Sociology, Depend- 
ents, etc.. Socialization, Social Science) 2 

V. PHILOSOPHY 

History of Philosophy i 



List B 

Additional courses suggested as important preparation for technical 
theological study from which elections can be made 

I. LANGUAGES 

Latin 2 

German (if not taken in high school, otherwise i) 2 

Hebrew (for those whose aptitude and desires would lead them to 

pursue Hebrew in seminary courses) 

Hellenistic Greek 

II. NATURAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE 

Geology 

Physics or Chemistry 



in. PHILOSOPHY 

Ethics 

Introduction to Philosophy § 

Logic I 



II. THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 

By SHAILER MATHEWS 

Professor of Historical and Comparative Theology, and Dean of the 

Divinity School, University of Chicago 



ANALYSIS 

PAGES 

A. The Historical Method in General. — ^The first step in the 
historical method. — The materials for historical study. — ^The study 
of literary material. — Textual or lower criticism. — Historico-hterary 
or higher criticism. — ^The discovery of genetic relations of facts. — The 

study of the history of religion 21-30 

B. The Evolution of Religion. — (i) What is meant by the evolu- 
tion of religion ? — The nature of religion. — The common element in 
differing religions. — Theories concerning the origin of rehgion. — The 
nature of religious activity. — (2) The evolution of the personal 
interpretation of environment. — Primitive religions. — Tribal religion. 
— Monarchical religion. — The higher development of monarchical 
rehgion . 30-46 

C. The Development of Religious Doctrines. — Mythology, philoso- 
phy, and theology. — Mythology as a means of interpreting 
religion. — ^The relation between theology and philosophy . . . 46-51 

D. The Development of Christian Doctrine. — The creative social 
mind. — The creative social minds which have made occidental his- 
tory. — The contribution of the Semitic social mind to Christian 
theology. — Some non-political ele'ments in New Testament thought. 
— ^The hellenistic social mind. — Latin orthodoxy as determined by 
imperialism. — Feudalism and Christian theology. — The nationalistic 
social mind and theology. — The age of revolutions and theology. — 

The modern social mind 51-71 

E. Why Theology Has Not Developed Parallel with the Presup- 
positions of Social Experience. — The influence of philosophy. — ^The 
retarding influence of doctrinal orthodoxy. — The constructive task of 
theology 71-79 



II. THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 
A. THE HISTORICAL METHOD IN GENERAL 

The study of history is much more than the reading of 
books about history. The genuine historian seeks, by the 
use of all the material at his disposal, so to reproduce the 
past as to make it not only vivid, but also a means of inter- 
preting the present. History, unlike biography, is essentially 
a social study. It is concerned with social groups rather 
than with individual men and women. It is by no means in- 
different to individuals, but regards them as contributors to 
the action of the group of which they are members. Biog- 
raphy, on the other hand, is centrally interested in the indi- 
vidual as related to social activities. 

The fact that history is essentially a social study makes 
possible a certain stability of method. Group action is by 
no means so indeterminate as the actions of individuals. It 
is possible, by statistics, for instance, to organize pretty clearly 
the general tendencies of groups of men, although it is quite 
impossible to determine just what the. action of the com- 
ponent individuals may be. While the historian must be 
careful not to mistake philosophical generalizations for 
history, it is none the less possible for him to reach certain 
general conclusions as to the movement that constitutes the 
evolution of civilization. These generalizations may be of 
real advantage in the interpretation of that particular point 
of the stream of human life to which he himself belongs. 

I. THE FIRST STEP IN THE HISTORICAL METHOD 

The first step in a historical method is the gathering of 
materials. These materials may be of varied sorts and are 
by no means limited to written sources. In fact, nothing 



22 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

could be more misleading than to conceive of history as essen- 
tially a matter of books. Since it deals with life, it must 
shape up its estimates of any period of the past through a 
scientific examination of all available products of that life. 

The materials for historical study may be classified 
(although the groups are not absolutely exclusive) as : 

a) Survivals. — Here would belong the actual non-material 
survivals, such as living practices, customs, social attitudes, 
and institutions which have extended over to the present from 
the past. Further, such matters as language, music, dances, 
are often of the utmost importance as embodying in themselves 
elements which were the germs of a more developed civi- 
lization. 

h) Monuments. — The second group of material may be 
roughly called the monuments, although the word is some- 
what unfortunate. Here belong the actual material sur- 
vivals of the past, such as manuscripts, papyri, pottery, and 
inscriptions (not their contents), buildings, coins, monuments, 
statuary, and all the material products of a period- With 
such materials the archaeologist and antiquarian are primarily 
concerned. These material remains of the past are of im- 
mense value, not only because they furnish the contents in 
such sources as inscriptions and manuscripts, but because 
in themselves they perpetuate information regarding the 
artistic and mechanical and general cultural developments of 
the past. No one, for example, could ever get a fair con- 
ception of the civilization of Egypt without the pyramids, nor 
could one accurately picture Greek life were it not for the 
great wealth of its statuary. The historical value of muse- 
ums is therefore great. In them the student of history finds 
his imagination stimulated by the actual products of past 
activities. 

c) Unwritten sources. — The third source of history may be 
said to be the unwritten sources not intended to be historical, 
like traditions, sagas, anecdotes, songs, legends, myths, and 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 23 

whatever else is carried along from tongue to tongue. In 
the course of time this material may be reduced to writing, 
but it is of distinctly different character from that of deliber- 
ately intentional records. Here again the student of his- 
tory is enabled to come directly to the life of the group he is 
studying and to share, as it were, the creative impulses in a 
way which no description makes possible. Folk-lore and 
sagas, for instance, lose much of their charm and original 
significance when reduced to the printed page. 

d) Written sources. — The fourth type of material is 
written. Such material is by no means limited to what 
would be called intentionally historical writings, like annals, 
chronicles, genealogies, biographies, and memoirs, but com- 
prises also non-narrative sources, including acts of govern- 
ments, and the contents of ''monuments" already mentioned. 
In the very nature of the case this written historical material 
is of outstanding importance for the historian and furnishes 
the largest mass of his sources. It is particularly in the 
study of these written sources that the historical method has 
made its most noteworthy advances in recent years. 

Literature. — The best work on historical method is Bernheim, 
Lehrbuch der historischen Methode, (Leipzig: Duncker, 1889, 2d ed., 
1894). In English such a work as J. M. Vincent, Historical Research: 
An Outline of Theory and Practice (New York: Holt, 191 1), or Langlois 
and Seignobos, Introduction to the Study of History (New York: Holt, 
1898), is excellent. 

2. THE STUDY OF LITERARY MATERIAL 

The method of investigating this written material is 
called criticism, and is of two sorts, in accordance with its 
purpose and material. 

a) Textual or lower criticism. — This is the determination 
of the original, or, if that be impossible, the oldest obtainable 
text of a document, whether narrative or record. Its method 
is the systematic comparison of various texts. Textual 



24 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

criticism has become a highly developed science in itself, 
and the results of different critics tend to a consensus of 
opinion. When we recall that there are several thousand 
variant manuscripts in whole or in part of the New Testament, 
the necessity of textual criticism is at once apparent. 

Textual criticism, however, does not undertake to do more 
than recover the oldest possible text. In the case of the 
New Testament no pretense is made by the critics that they 
can reconstruct any text of a date earlier than the second 
century. That this second-century text is doubtless close to 
that of the documents then circulating may very well be 
conjectured, but no hope is entertained of an absolute recovery 
of the text of the autograph. Furthermore, textual criticism 
leaves unanswered many questions concerning the trust- 
worthiness of the record, the text of which may have been 
approximately recovered. Thus a second step is demanded. 

b) Historico-literary or higher criticism. — The methods of 
this stage of criticism are very similar to those of the textual 
criticism, but the problems are different. Granting that we 
have the oldest obtainable text, the question is raised as to the 
authorship of the document, the possibility of rewriting 
or other modification of an original source having taken place, 
the personal equation or ''tendency" of an author or editor, 
and the integrity or composite character of a source. In the 
answer to such questions there is, of course, involved the 
further and more important matter of the trustworthiness of 
the record. 

In all attempts to answer such questions, particularly in 
the case of records so precious as the books of the Bible, the 
historical critic should proceed with caution and by no means 
give way to the temptation to make clever guesses. In the 
estimate of the historical value of any given document we 
must proceed by way of testing hypotheses, and such 
hypotheses should be based upon painstaking study of the data 
rather than upon suppositions and guesses. In testing any 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 25 

hypothesis the student employing the historical method 
should be careful to use all monumental evidences at his 
disposal. In fact, any hypothesis that is essentially un- 
controlled by Study of the actual materials of the life of a 
period as far as they are preserved is to be adopted very 
cautiously. One of the most serious difficulties in the present 
study of the history of religion, and of Christianity in par- 
ticular, is the dogmatic presentation of hypotheses which 
are- based upon a very narrow range of facts arid are largely 
colored by the critic's own personal opinions. 

It is obvious that in both the lower or textual and the 
higher or historical criticism the student must be constantly 
on guard against his own prejudices and preconceptions. 
Absolute impartiality in our attitudes is probably out of the 
question, and critical scholarship makes its permanent advance 
by the mutual testing of various scholars. Their personalities 
serve to counteract one another, and in the course of time 
results are reached which are as free from personal bias and as 
trustworthy as the existing data and human nature permit. 

It is much to be regretted that in so many cases the student 
for the ministry comes to the historical study of the Scriptures 
without any training in historical method. As a result he is 
likely, at first, to feel that the foundations of what has been 
to him helpful religious conviction, inherited or accepted 
without reflection, are being shaken. Further acquaintance 
with a genuinely scientific method, however, serves to liberate 
him from this feeling, and in the study of doctrine, church and 
Bible alike, he finds himself possessed of facts which are not 
dependent for their validity upon inheritance or ecclesiastical 
authority. None the less the transition from one type of 
study in religion to another should be made in the atmosphere 
of religion itself. Nothing is more fatal to the spirit of 
genuine religion than the substitution of scientific method for 
personal fellowship with God. '^To pray well is to study 
well" is as true of the historical critic as of the preacher. 



26 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Literature. — ^The following are useful for a study of criticism: Zenos, 
Elements of the Higher Criticism (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1895); 
Dods, The Bible, Its Origin and Nature (New York: Scribner, 1905); 
Bernheim, Lehrbuch der historischen Methode (Leipzig: Duncker & 
Humblot, 1889, 2nd ed., 1894); Briggs, Introduction to the Study of Holy 
Scripture (New York: Scribner, 1899). 

3. THE DISCOVERY OF GENETIC RELATIONS OE FACTS 

The study of sources is only introductory to the more 
definitely historical methods. Criticism gives material and 
nothing more. When sources have been properly studied 
and their worth as historical material has been determined, 
there begins the work of the historian proper, namely, such an 
organization of the material thus gained as to produce an 
accurate description of the total situation under investigation. 
The difference between the antiquarian and the historian 
here becomes evident. The antiquarian, as such, is interested 
in objects rather than in life-processes. The historian will 
use the results of antiquarian study much as he uses those 
of lower and higher criticism, but he himself must proceed to 
show the relations in which these various facts stand. For, in 
history, relations and particularly the processes of social 
experience are of supreme importance. To know how a situa- 
tion came into existence is indispensable to a knowledge of 
the situation. Equally indispensable is, the power of evaluat- 
ing historical conditions from the point of view of their out- 
comes in the genetic process of social evolution. 

At this point it is very necessary to distinguish between 
history and the philosophy of history. Probably no historian 
is absolutely free from philosophical predilections, and he 
must be constantly on his guard against the tyranny of pre- 
conceived philosophy. Such theories should really come by 
induction from the facts themselves. It is true, however, 
that studies in certain fields, particularly in those of statistics, 
politics, law, and sociology, furnish general conceptions by 
which the inner relations of historical experience may be 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 27 

tested; but these features are of less importance than those 
almost subconscious habits of thought which are the expres- 
sion of the general social mind under whose influences the 
historian lives. At present this is particularly true because 
of the conception of process and development which have come 
into the social sciences from the biological and geological 
fields. 

It is necessary also to know the geographical conditions 
and economic struggles which have conditioned human efforts. 

History is more than its record, for it is the actual living 
of men and women. It is concrete, a movement full of 
changes as well as results. It extends far beyond the earliest 
historical records. Indeed, the actually recorded history of 
humanity covers an exceedingly small period compared with 
the hundreds of thousands of years diiring which, we are 
assured, man has been living upon the planet. Really to 
understand our present life it is necessary to recall the long 
struggles of our far-away ancestors. To this end the study 
of the bones and implements found in various geological strata 
is as truly of importance as is the study of newspapers. We 
can best appreciate how far the race has actually developed 
when we compare our modern world with human affairs as 
they appear from a study of prehistoric man. 

From this point of view we can appreciate the value of the 
study of primitive peoples. They are, so to speak, the social 
left-overs, human survivals of stages of civilization which once 
were the highest known. These primitive peoples are not 
lacking in ability, and when they come under the influence 
of a higher civilization, particularly when this is mediated by 
Christianity, they develop amazingly; but their customs, reli- 
gions, and social structure enable us again to appreciate the 
great progress which has been made in human life. 

Literature. — On primitive life, Tylor, Primitive Culture, 3d ed. (New 
York: Holt, 1889), may be well studied. Thomas, Source Book for 
Social Origins (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909), is of 



28 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

great value. Keane, Man, Past and Present (Cambridge: University 
Press, 1899), is a good handbook but somewhat too certain at points. 
Sumner, Folkways (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1907), is valuable for its dis- 
cussion of primitive social control. Osborn, The Men of the Old Stone 
Age (New York: Scribner, 191 5) is a valuable compendium of our 
knowledge of earliest races. On the general trend of history, see 
Mathews, The Spiritual Interpretation of History (Harvard University 
Press, 1916). 

4. THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF RELIGION 

It is from this point of view that men are now learning 
to study the history of religion. The same methods which are 
applied to tracing the development of any other human inter- 
est are now being applied with very interesting results to the 
development of religion. Such a study involves a knowledge 
of anthropology and a careful investigation of the lives, 
manners, and customs of primitive peoples; yet such a knowl- 
edge is by no means all that the history of religion involves. 
As Farnell, Evolution of Religion, well argues, we need to know 
not only origins but processes of development. 

Fortunately, we possess the records of a religion which has 
thus developed from the very simplest type of social customs. 
The Bible is a record of the religious experience of the Hebrews 
from the dawn of their historical records to the very highest 
ideal type of life to be found in Jesus. It is only recently, 
however, that this wonderful collection of historical material 
has been treated in a historical way. Theologians have used 
the Bible to find proof -texts; preachers have allegorized it to 
get religious inspiration and the truth which they wish to 
preach; fanatics have found in it all sorts of ammunition for 
attacking their opponents; but the sober and reverent study 
of its passages by the use of literary and historical methods 
which have proved themselves effective in other fields of 
similar research was for centuries neglected. 

The application of these methods to the study of the Bible 
has served to enable us, first of all, to appreciate the worth and 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 29 

the character of the documents of the Bible itself; but, more 
important, it has enabled us, in the second place, to trace 
the development of the Hebrew religion as the Hebrew people 
progressed and made their way through the various strata of 
social experience. In the start they had not even a tribal 
organization. Gradually the tribes emerged, confederated, 
fell apart, and out from a section of them emerged a nation. 
This nation m turn suffered the experiences of little nations 
situated between mighty military powers, and the Jewish 
people ceased to be a nation, but spread over the world as 
immigrants, bearing the hope of a glorious kingdom which 
God would later establish for them. 

Then came Christianity — a religion which emerged from 
Judaism, but perpetuated no ethnic traits, retaining only the 
religious and ethical ideals. These it presented as embodied 
and completed in the life of Jesus Christ — a life which the 
world has always regarded as supreme. 

Fully to appreciate this development of our own religion 
it is advisable for the student to become acquainted with the 
development of other religions. Students of comparative 
religion have in the past been less interested in the develop- 
ment of religions than in contrasting various systems and 
discovering their common elements and their differences. 
The study of the history of religion is somewhat different from 
this, and as yet has confined itself pretty largely to the study 
of primitive peoples. There are indications, however, that on 
the basis of such anthropological and scientific investigations 
there will be built a more complete presentation of religion in 
its more developed forms (see section B). 

Literature. — Good introductions to the study of comparative religion 
are those by Jevons, An Introduction to the History of Religion (London: 
Methuen, 1896), and Menzies, History of Religion (New York: Scribner, 
1895). Pfleiderer, Religion und Religionen (Munich: Lehmann, 1906; 
EngHsh translation, Religion and Historic Faiths [New York: Huebsch, 
1907]) > gives a compact general study. 



30 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Efforts have been made in this connection to show how 
Christianity has emerged from earHer religious movements. 
Particularly by the religions geschichtliche school has the 
endeavor been made to trace the ideas of the New 
Testament to earlier religions, especially those of Egypt, 
Syria, Persia, and Assyria. Such procedure has brought 
to light many interesting facts, but as yet it is marked by more 
ingenuity than solid reasoning. An extreme development 
is to be seen in authors like Drews {The Christ Myth), who 
have denied the historicity of Jesus and have made him a 
personification of religious ideals. 

Literature. — For a study of the primitive religions as a phase of this 
new movement students may be referred to King, The Development of 
Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1910); Farnell, Evolution of Religion 
(New York: Putnam, 1905) ; Durkheim, Les formes elementaires de la vie 
religieuse (Paris: Alcan, 191 2; English translation, The Elementary 
Forms of the Religious Life [New York: Macmillan, 19 15]); Ames, The 
Psychology of Religious Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 19 10). 
The most elaborate work is Frazer, Golden Bough (London: Macmillan, 
1911-15). The position of those who deny the historicity of Jesus can 
be found well criticized in Case, The Historicity of Jesus (Chicago: The 
University of Chicago Press, 191 2). 

B. THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 
I. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION?^ 

The use of the term ''evolution " in connection with reUgion 
is subject to at least two objections. On the one side are those 
who insist that religion is the gift of God, and therefore has no 
historical development. And, on the other hand, the biologist 
may object to the use of the term in any such general sense as 
a student of social science must adopt. 

To the first critic it may be replied that, when he asserts 
or implies that religion has not developed like other elements 
in human experience, the facts are against him. Whatever 

^ In the following discussion I have used freely, with the consent of the 
editors, materials of papers pubUshed by myself in the American Journal of 
Theology, the American Jonrnal of Sociology, and the Constructive Quarterly. 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 31 

may have been its origin, religion exhibits phenomena akin 
to those observable in social institutions to which the term 
''evolution" may legitimately be applied. The old dis- 
tinction of the Deists between natural and revealed religion 
has been outgrown, not so much because it did not involve 
large elements of truth, but because as a final answer to the 
problems set by the history of Christianity it failed to take 
into account those psychological and sociological factors with 
which the modern student is particularly concerned. All 
religions are phases of religion. 

To the other class of critics it must be replied that if 
biologists ever had a monopoly on the term ''evolution" their 
exclusive rights have long since expired. The conception 
given to the word by the Origin of Species and general bio- 
logical usage is a particular phase of a view of the world as 
old as reflective thought. The service which biology has 
rendered the social sciences at this point has largely been 
confined to the region of method, vocabularies, and analogies. 
If these analogies have too often been overemphasized and 
made to do yeoman service in the name of some non-biological 
science, they have none the less made it possible to realize 
that whatever precise definition may be given to the term 
"evolution" there is a large measure of similarity between 
certain processes in social history and certain others in the 
building up of cellular organisms. Outside of the strictly 
biological sciences the word must be used in a large sense, but 
it is not identical with mere change or growth. It is possible 
to trace religion, as one of the functional expressions of life 
itself, through increasingly compHcated and more highly differ- 
entiated activities and institutions, as that life, both of indi- 
viduals and of societies, seeks to adjust itself more effectively 
to its environment. The result of such vital activity is to 
produce, as it were, species of religions, between which, as, 
for example, between Brahmanism and Mohammedanism, 
there is only a generic likeness. 



32 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

2. THE NATURE OF RELIGION 

a) Religion not an abstraction. — There have been times in 
which men have endeavored to arrive at the conception of 
rehgion by abstracting from Christianity its characteristic 
elements. Other attempts have been made to extend this 
process of abstraction to all religions, and thus to discover that 
which is, so to speak, a generic concept. The difficulty with 
such search after a bit of scholastic realism is evident. Generic 
religion never existed apart from religions, and religions never 
existed except as interests and institutions of real people. 
There is imperative need that all students of the subject, 
and especially theologians, should emancipate themselves from 
scholastic abstractions and frankly recognize that religion is 
not a thing in itself, possessed of independent, abstract, or 
metaphysical existence, but is a name for one phase of con- 
crete life. It is only from a strictly social point of view that 
either religion or religions will in any measure be properly 
understood. We know only people who worship in various 
ways and with various conceptions of what or whom they 
worship. 

h) What is the common element in differing religions? — 
Yet while men possess religions and not merely religion, reli- 
gions of all sorts, from the simplest custom of the savage to the 
profundity of Brahmanism and the redemptive gospels of 
the Buddhist and the Christian, they have discovered within 
themselves religion as a common divisor, as it were. And 
religion is a functioning of life itself as truly and universally 
human as the impulse of sex or of self-preservation. 

If we attempt to formulate this common element and 
to describe this functional expression of life expressed in all 
religions, we must compare both the highly developed religious 
systems and the simplest type of religion as it exists among 
primitive peoples. The more complex systems show the 
direction taken by the religious expression of life, and the 
simplest religious organisms help us to understand the more 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 33 

complicated. To push the biological analogy farther, it 
might be said that the ''cell" of reUgion is man's conscious 
attempt to place himself, as a member of a group possessed of 
similar concepts and customs, in benefit-gaining relationship with 
those superhuman forces in his world, his dependence upon 
which he realizes, and which he treats as he would treat persons 
by whom he wished to be aided. Or, more briefly, religion is a 
social laying hold of God (or any object of worship) for the 
sake of help or salvation. 

It is obvious that the content of such a formal definition 
will vary according to the conception of what constitutes this 
superhuman environment, and that this variety of estimate 
will affect the methods which a man adopts in his search for 
superhuman aid. A study of even the most primitive religion 
leads one to two convictions apparently paradoxical: religion 
does not necessarily imply a belief in a supreme person, and 
yet, in religion, environment is conceived of in the same way 
that men conceive of persons. Therein the functioning of life 
in religion differs from the functioning of life in the satisfaction 
of the impulse of sex or of food-seeking. True religion does 
not, as Monier- Williams would insist, postulate the existence 
of one living and true God of infinite power, wisdom, and love. 
That would exclude too many religious customs and rites. 
Men have worshiped fetishes or animals or sacred stones. 
Such objects are regarded as elements in the environment 
which affect human interests, and therefore, without being 
of necessity consciously personified, are treated as if they 
were personal. 

c) Theories concerning the origin of religion. — There are a 
number of theories undertaking to show how this attitude 
of mind was induced, but all are more or less unsatisfactory. 
Some find the cause in fear, or dreams, or regard for ancestors, 
or the appetencies of sex. Doubtless there is truth in all of 
these hypotheses, but we are not absolutely sure as to just how 
religion came into existence any more than we are sure as to 



34 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

how human hfe itself arose. We can, however, see clearly that 
the functional significance of religion is an elemental expression 
of the second of the two elemental impulses of life itself, 
namely, to propagate and to protect itself. Religion is life 
functioning in the interest of self-protection. It differs from 
similar functional expressions of life in that (i) it treats 
certain elements of its environment personally (though not 
necessarily as a person), and (2) it seeks to make these 
friendly and so helpful. One or the other of these two ele- 
ments has almost invariably been overlooked in studies of 
religion, but both are indispensable to the concept. Religion 
utilizes personal experience and uncompromisingly pre- 
supposes personalism — not, let it be repeated, always in the 
sense of any systematic world-view. Doubtless unconsciously 
at the first, but with ever-increasing clearness of conception, 
men have treated their environment as they would ^ treat 
human beings. Religion is uncompromisingly functional, 
not only in adjusting the individual or the group to its environ- 
ment, but also in the attempt to adjust environment to the 
person or the community. Thus Schleiermacher's conception 
of religion as a feeling of dependence is only part of the truth. 
To it must be added the conscious effort toward reconciliation. 
It is this twofold modification of the elemental functioning of 
life in the interest of self-preservation that distinguishes 
religion from so many activities with which it has been inti- 
mately associated, like hunting, and grain-planting, marriage, 
and burial. 

Obviously the inception of this radically human attitude 
toward its world is lost in the unrecorded struggles by which 
humanity raised itself above the other forms of animal life 
with which it is genetically united. But one's ignorance 
here does not impugn the fact that such a use of experience 
was actually made. 

Some time, somewhere — just when and where it matters 
not — there appeared a man who, first of all living creatures, 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 35 

with the new impulses of a genuine person, attempted to adjust 
himself consciously to the outer world upon which he saw 
himself dependent by an attempt to make that outer world 
favorable to himself. It makes little difference how he 
conceived that outer world or which one of its particular 
aspects first impressed him. Any one of the various theories 
of the origin of religion might here suffice. The essential 
thing is that, in his passion to protect his life and to insure his 
continuous existence as a person, he attempted consciously to 
enjoy or to win the favor of the extra-human environment 
with which he found himself involved and on which his 
happiness seemed to depend. And that, so far as we know, 
no animal other than man ever attempted to accomplish. 

But even this statement is too individualistic. Such 
efforts have always appeared in history as the expressions of 
group activity. Religions are fundamentally social, the pos- 
session of some tribe, nation, or church. 

It is not necessary to insist that all religions are genetically 
related, in the sense that one has been derived from another. 
That some such relations between certain religions in the way 
of development or devolution exist is undeniable; but the 
historico-religious method at the present time is in danger of 
mistaking similarities between religions for genealogical rela- 
tions. Thus in the comparative study, let us say, of Chris- 
tianity there is strong temptation to insist that elements 
of Babylonian myths go to constitute the very content of 
Christianity. That a certain degree of genealogical relation- 
ship in this particular case may exist may well be admitted, 
but a too rigorous application of the comparative genealogical 
method in the study of religion is certain to distort the facts. 
If there is anything undeniable in the study of society, it is 
that human nature is essentially the same, and that when 
facing the same social needs it functions in a generic sort of 
way. Thus, in the case of inventions, men subject to the 
stimulation of similar social needs, in absolute independence 



36 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

of each other, produce instruments and processes practically 
identical. An even more striking illustration of this general 
tendency is to be seen in the fact that all civilizations pre- 
cipitate practically the same moral codes when they arrive 
at the same stage of complication of social life. So in the 
case of religions; the striking similarities which occur between 
religions belonging to the primitive groups and religions belong- 
ing to the highly socialized groups are not necessarily to be 
interpreted as involving imitative, or in fact any, historical 
relationship. Such similarities, both in institution and in 
process of evolution, can often be sufficiently well accounted 
for by a generic religious impulse in humanity, which tends 
to produce customs, rites, institutions, and creeds in answer 
to individual and social needs. 

d) The nature of religious activity. — ^At the risk of excessive 
repetition one thing needs particularly to be emphasized; 
namely, the worshiper not only seeks to appease that in his 
environment which he regards as conditioning his welfare, 
but he also undertakes to put himself into proper relationship 
with that which he appeases. The essence of religion is not a 
feeling of dependence, but the impulse toward reconciliation 
with that which engenders such a feeling. The moment 
a group thinks that the highest power in its environment is 
unreconcilable its relations therewith become utterly passive, 
i.e., impersonal; men cease to be religious and become simply 
fatalists. And fatalism is not religion, for it lacks the 
fundamental attitude of religion, which is the effort to establish 
favorable relations with the super-environment. In other 
words, the situation which religion would establish is one of 
personal harmony between the worshiper and that worshiped, 
ho matter how crude or superstitious that relationship may 
be. The primitive savage who by mysterious rites seeks to 
induce his corn-god to give him a good harvest differs no whit, 
so far as his psychological attitude is concerned, from the 
most philosophically rehgious person who seeks to enter into 



\ 

THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 37 

healthful personal relations with a supreme and infinite God 
through an intelligent faith that the universe may be conceived 
of as involving a cosmic personality possessed of purpose and 
love. How true this is, is apparent in the work of Christian 
missionaries. They do not need to engender the religious 
impulse — they need simply to give new content and intel- 
lectual control to that impulse. A man could never make a 
religious convert of a dog. The South Sea cannibal could 
become a Christian because he was first of all religious. 

Literature. — On religion in general there is developing a voluminous 
literature. Farnell, The Evolution of Religion (New York: Putnam, 
1905), is a good handbook on certain religious phenomena, particularly 
sacrifice. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites (London: Black, 
1894) ; Bousset, Das Wesen der Religion (Tubingen: Mohr, 1906; English 
translation, What Is Religion? [New York: Putnam, 1907]); King, 
The Development of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1910); Moulton, 
Religions and Religion (New York: Methodist Book Concern, 191 4); 
and Andrew Lang, Ritual and Religion (London: Longmans, 1899), are 
also valuable general popular treatments. Toy, Introduction to the 
History of Religion (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1913); Jastrow, Introduction 
to the Study of Religion (New York: Scribner, 1901), are admirable 
handbooks. See also important titles on p. 29. 

3. THE EVOLUTION OF THE PERSONAL INTERPRETATION OF 
ENVIRONMENT 

It will be understood from what has already been said 
that the term extra- or superhuman environment does not 
always necessarily involve personaHty. What the term means 
is simply some power other and (in its influence at least) more 
than human which a group regards as having influence upon 
its life and fortunes. The fact that such elements of the 
environment are treated as if they were personal is only to say 
that religion involves an extension of personal experience over 
into environment as a means of interpreting that environment 
in the interests of a helpful reconciHation. Personal life 
seeks personal adjustment to an environment believed to 
possess personal elements. Such an instinctive act is not 



38 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

unlike that in which, to speak figuratively, a living organism 
makes the assumption that its environment discovered by 
experience is capable of forming a part of a dynamic situation. 
Thus far Ward is correct in saying that religion is in man what 
instinct is in animals. But only in so far; for did an animal 
ever seek to placate nature ? The personal element is essential 
in religion, because it is the functioning of the total life of a 
personal being. 

The essential matter in the evolution of religion, as in all 
evolution, is the transformation of the original organism 
through its relation with its environment and the nucleating 
about itself — if the figure may be allowed — of other experiences 
into species of the same genus. And this is accomplished by 
the varying social experience with which a group adjusts itself 
to its environment, to which it must submit, and from which 
it must derive assistance. 

a) Primitive religions. — These generally deal with 
environment directly. The primitive gods in the earliest 
survivals and literature in which we can trace religious con- 
cepts were often natural forces. The heavens and earth, 
fire, water, and wind, the sun, moon, and planets — these 
natural objects were worshiped, but they were not personified. 
Man found himself face to face with the awfulness of Nature. 
He saw how dependent he was upon Nature, how the rising of 
the river would flood and sweep away his hut, how the rain 
would come from heaven to give him grass for his cattle, how 
the sun would drive the animals he hunted into the deep 
forests. He naturally wanted to make the river and the 
heavens propitious. He therefore treated them as he treated 
human beings whom he wished to make propitious. 

Groups also were or became animistic and regarded 
natural forces as the home or the visible expression of personal 
beings, such as ghosts, spirits, gods. These, men treated 
personally — as they treated members of their own or other 
tribes. Customs thus preceded doctrines. 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 39 

If we go even farther back than philology can carry us and 
study religion as we discover it in the most primitive folk, 
we find corroboration for this view, although with this differ- 
ence : there seem to be some tribes that have not risen to the 
conception of the great natural forces as those that are to be 
appeased and who therefore concern themselves rather with 
items in their natural environment. In fact, anything unusual 
is likely to be regarded by primitive men as a good or a malign 
influence. In either case it needs to be treated with respect 
and, if possible, placated. A rock over which someone has 
fallen, a cave in the darkness of which someone has been lost, 
a curious root that was discovered when someone became ill, 
a tree that has been struck by lightning — all have been 
regarded as operative forces in man's situation which have 
needed in some way to be placated. 

Here, too, an early step was to regard these natural 
objects as the residence of some spirit, good or evil. Thus 
fetishism arose as a sort of limitation of the lesser nature- 
worship. Not all natural objects were significant, and even 
those which were might lose their meaning if the spirit aban- 
doned them. 

It is possible to draw a distinction between magic and reli- 
gion as soon as religion begins to take on its more social form. 
The witch is different from the priest, in that her arts are 
anti-social, or at least not those of the group. Despite the 
weighty names to be quoted against such a view, it would 
seem to me that non-injurious magic may often be treated 
as the vestige of a rudimentary religion preserved and 
observed by specially empowered persons rather than by 
groups. For there is in such magic, e.g., rain-making, that 
"will to conciliate" as well as to control, which, as a comple- 
ment to the ''will to power," is the very sign-manual of 
religion. But this is not to say that religion developed from 
magic. The fundamental difference between magic and reli- 
gion lies not in the fact that magic was originally anti-social 



40 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

or individualistic, but in the fact that in the course of social 
evolution it is seen to be so. As religion develops, certain 
rites are seen to apply only the impersonal principle that 
like affects like through the agency of a specially empow- 
ered person who has a personal monopoly of power. The 
primitive religion thus outgrown becomes magic and, although 
socially condemned, continues as a survival. And the reason 
for its condemnation is in large measure the development of a 
knowledge of natural processes. A growing science thus rele- 
gates certain elements of a religion to superstition. 

Similarly, too, in the case of the worship of dead ancestors, 
a stage in religious development to be found all but universally 
in simple civilizations. Whatever may have been the origin 
of such a custom, it is sufficiently clear that the dead are 
regarded as important factors in determining good and evil 
fortune. For a group to propitiate them is therefore good 
policy as well as tribal piety. 

h) Tribal religion. — With the emergence of actual tribal 
organization a new phase in this religious interest appeared. 
A developing civilization does not always, it is true, immedi- 
ately react to the conception of the god, but, in so far as the 
religious concept develops, it invariably passes through a 
stage in which these forces which have been treated like 
persons are treated as persons. This is to say that, con- 
temporaneously with the development of the clan, religion 
entered into the stage of naive anthropomorphic or anthropo- 
pathic religions. Such a development was inevitable for 
people sufficiently constructive to become a part of the main 
current of civilization. All others, like the Black Fellows 
of Australia, preserve the religious ideas in forms as primitive 
as their civilizations. Such personification, however, does 
not seem to have proceeded uniformly. In some cases a tribe 
would have as its own a god who is the personification of 
some natural force, and would worship him by attributing to 
him those quaUties which, thanks to its social development, 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 41 

the tribe as a whole believed to be the most ideal. Without 
exception these tribal gods are regarded as normally in a 
state of reconciliation with the tribe. Generally they are 
regarded as the fathers of their tribes. In other words, they 
are believed to partake of the same elemental quality as 
primitive civihzation itself. They are, however, subject to 
paroxysms of anger, evidenced by the defeat of the tribe in 
battle, by the outbreak of disease, and by various other mis- 
fortunes. In such cases they must be placated by gifts. In 
this we see one of the various contributing influences that 
made sacrifice a social institution, although there are other 
influences quite as powerful. At other times a god appears to 
be particularly favorable, in that he sends good weather and 
good fortune. At such times his kindness needs to be appre- 
ciated by gifts. Thus arises the sort of sacrifice which is 
not intended to appease the tribal god, but to thank him for 
his help. In this all members of a tribe partake. 

But the most essential element in the tribal religion is the 
conception of the god as the supreme chieftain of the tribe. 
It is true that he is not believed to appear frequently, but 
that at critical moments some member is likely to see him and 
get some word of encouragement or warning. Further, there 
have been few peoples who have attained to the tribal form 
of society in which there has not been some particular person 
or family regarded as in some way the god's particular repre- 
sentative. Such persons instructed the tribe as to the will of 
the god, served as priests, and, under the god's direction, 
established great feasts of which the god partakes. Probably 
at this point we find the most important contributing source 
of sacrifice. The social group includes the god, and he shares 
in the experiences of the tribe, be they sad or joyous. And 
it should be noted that the rites of religions had their origin in 
the enjoyment of life as truly as in its misery and fear. Men 
thought of the gods as their companions as truly as their 
judges. 



42 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

This tribal god in some tribes may, so to speak, be assisted 
by a number of secondary gods, but polytheism is not neces- 
sarily an element of tribal religion, and even when a tribe 
worships several gods it is likely to have one particularly 
its own. In fact, as the tribal civilization developed it would 
seem as if, in many cases, particularly among the Semites 
and the Aryans, there were two classes of gods — those 
which represent the material forces more or less personi- 
fied and constitute a sort of super-divine body of deities to 
whom worship is to be paid as the final sources of good for- 
tune, and, along with these, so to speak, the working class 
among the gods. Other tribes carry along with their single 
tribal god a phase of magic which may be said to be the sur- 
vival of some more primitive religious practice. Similarly, 
customs, the meaning of which has long been forgotten, may be 
carried along as essential elements of a developing religion. So 
important may these customs become as to give almost its full 
content to the religion. 

c) Monarchical religion. — The fact that the tribal god 
was regarded as, so to speak, the responsible party in tribal 
history led to another phase of religion, the monarchical. 
Such a term is at best unsatisfactory, but it serves to indicate 
how the thought of God develops by the extension to him of 
new political conceptions. The national god must be superior 
'to the tribal chieftain. As a chieftain developed in power by 
conquest so as to extend the power of the tribe over other 
tribes, it has been all but uniformly true that the tribal god 
was regarded as victorious over the gods of the conquered 
tribes. Thus, as the tribe itself through conquest became 
the head of a quasi-nation, the god became a conquering 
monarch. But it did not at all follow that the tribe which 
had been absorbed or conquered would give up its god. It 
might continue to worship him in the hope that ultimately 
he would assert himself and give deliverance to his people. 
Or, on the other hand, as the tribe was incorporated into a new 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 43 

political entity, its god might become a member of the royal 
court of the supreme God. There is many a nation whose 
religious history shows the struggle between the worship of 
the two sets of deities. Thus we find, in the history of Israel, 
a long succession of struggles between the worship of Jehovah 
and that of the Baalim and the Syrian gods of the high places 
belonging to the conquered Canaanites. This struggle is 
likely to be particularly violent when the two sets of gods are 
brought together, not by war or conquest, but by the inter- 
mingling of civilizations. 

For conquest is not the only source of the development of 
the king god. Political development as such leads to this 
more developed conception. It may often be that a number 
of tribes have the same god. These may federate, as in the 
tribes of Israel, religion being the sole or at least the chief bond 
of the political unity. But even such federation is not neces- 
sary for the development of the idea of God. The trans- 
formation of the tribe from nomadic to agricultural life has 
been accompanied by a transformation of the conception of a 
god and has given him new attributes, as in Zoroastrianism. 
Sometimes this addition has been made through the religious 
teachers or the priests; sometimes it has been unconsciously 
due to the rise of new economic conceptions born of social 
evolution. As the agricultural stage of social evolution has 
passed into the commercial and urban, the new powers of the 
chieftains have been used as media for shaping new preroga- 
tives for the god. His relations have become less those of the 
father of the family and more those of the king, increasingly po- ' 
litical and forensic. It is not too much to say that, in the case 
of all tribes whose development we can trace across the various 
stages of social evolution, the idea of monarchy, which has 
characterized some period of every developed society, however 
different its social institutions may have been, has also colored 
religions. The god is not subject to the will of the people; the 
people and their material environment are to obey him. 



44 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Obedience to his law becomes thus a condition of his rendering 
his people aid. 

d) The higher development of monarchical religion. — ^At 
this point the really great religions have made two important 
transitions : 

1. The superhuman monarch of the tribe has come to be 
regarded as the superhuman monarch of the world, the king 
of creation. It has not followed that all the other gods have 
been regarded as non-existent, for in many cases they have 
been treated as devils or saints. But the passage to genuine 
monotheism can, not infrequently, be traced through this 
monarchical stage. 

The divine monarch is supreme over human subjects. He 
arranges nature. The thunder is his voice, the wind his 
messenger, the earthquake the creature of his will. Men 
begin to think of him philosophically, and so transcendental 
may the thought of him become that the effort to realize 
the now supreme and increasingly ethical conception of his 
character gives rise to a genuine if naive theology. 

2. The second transition has been the moral elevation 
of the idea of God. This change has been the work of the 
prophet. In primitive religion the prophet in any true sense 
of the word is unknown. There are only medicine men, 
necromancers, witches, and the like. But few peoples ever 
come to the universal monarchy conception of their god 
without seeing in him the standard of morality. If such a 
transition is impossible, a new god is adopted as the new 
conscience needs a more sensitively moral god. If, as in the 
case of classical mythology, gods are past reformation, they 
are pensioned off with conventional honors and allowed to 
pass into innocuous desuetude on some mountain where 
their example will not injure the morals of young people. In 
the extent of this moral idealization of its idea of God the 
Hebrew religion is unique. It seems to have passed through 
the earlier stages of religious evolution; but this eventuated, as 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 45 

in no other religion, in a monarch of absolute righteousness, 
hating iniquity. That this is the case is due to the work of 
the prophets who, from an exceptional religious experience, 
taught an unwilling nation ideals that were to serve as the 
basis of the non-monarchical ethical religion of Jesus. 

This monarchical conception has given rise to the most 
precise theologies. It is easy to see why. Political experi- 
ence is so universal, political institutions are so subject to legal 
adjustment, and legal analogies are so intelligible, that it 
has been comparatively easy to systematize religious relations 
under the general rubrics of statecraft. Thus righteousness 
has been thought of as the observance of the laws of the god, 
given through divinely inspired teachers, and punishment has 
been attached to the violation of such laws in precisely the 
same way as to the violation of laws of the king. The pardon- 
ing of sins has been a royal prerogative, although sometimes 
needing justification in the way of vicarious suffering by some 
competent sacrificial animal or person, while the rewards of 
the righteous have been pictured by figures drawn from the 
triumphs of earthly kings, just as in primitive societies the 
future has been regarded as the ''happy hunting-ground." 

3. Only a few religions have as yet progressed beyond the 
monarchical stage. In Brahmanism religion has been denied 
content and direction by an impersonal cosmic philosophy, 
and two of the three great religions of Semitic origin — Judaism 
and Christianity — ^have moved over into a quasi-transcen- 
dental personal sphere. But the theologies of even these 
religions have been developed on the monarchical analogy. 
This is particularly true of Christianity as the flowering of 
Hebrew religion through the introduction of the personal 
experiences of Jesus. 

Literature. — See the references given above (p. 37). For more 
philosophical treatment, see also Fiske, The Idea of God as Afeded hy 
Modern Knowledge (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1885); Wester- 
marck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, 2 vols. (London: 
Macmillan, 1906 and 1908) ; Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human 



46 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Experience (New Haven: Yale University Press, 191 2); and Gwatkin, 
The Knowledge of God and Its Historical Development (Edinburgh: 
Clark, 1906). 

C. THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES 

Theology deals primarily with experience, and experience 
is far more extensive than rational processes. Theology 
arises when men undertake to organize their inherited and 
new religious experiences, beliefs, and customs in harmony 
with other elements of experience, and thus to satisfy their 
deepest spiritual need for unity between their faith and 
their knowledge of the universe. The organizing principle 
is all but invariably dramatic, a presupposition born of social 
experience which the community producing the theology has 
unconsciously accepted as a basis of social activity and the 
standard of social values. Most frequently such an organiz- 
ing principle is that already operative in the state. A second, 
or apologetic, period begins when men undertake to defend 
their right to hold religious beliefs by means of appropriating 
current elements of culture. The creative and the apologetic 
stages of theology are indispensable, but the former is primarily 
social, the latter philosophical. 

Mythology, philosophy, and theology. — Religion is per- 
sonal, but it is also a phase of social experience. Although by 
no means to be identified with social custom, its develop- 
ment involves such custom, and particularly the preser- 
vation of tribal sanctions for various social activities. Yet 
to limit religion to merely social experience and to make God 
a symbol of an authoritative totahty of social experience is 
to neglect outstanding elements of personality and its relations. 
Religion is a word of experience, but it has a correlate in an 
extra-experiential reality which is a dominating factor in the 
situation out of which religion develops. To eliminate an 
objective God from religion is as illogical as to eliminate the 
soil and air from the life of a plant. A theology in the nature 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 47 

of the case must therefore contain its meta-experiential ele- 
ments. A pragmatic view of the world is highly fruitful for 
the discussion of the psychological and social aspects of 
religion, but it is not sufficient for a theology which shall 
include the cosmic processes in which men find themselves. 

But after this has been admitted it still remains true that 
the first creative attempts to rationalize religious experience 
into harmony with elements of culture have not found their 
organizing principles in metaphysical processes. Meta- 
physical treatment of religion has always been a second or 
even third stage in the rationalizing process. Prior to it are 
mythology and theology, each structurally dramatic. 

a) Mythology as a means of interpreting religion. — Recent 
discussions in the history of religion have made evident the 
fact that mythology has played no inconsiderable part in 
the early stages of religious development. Myths might be 
described as a method of combining rationalized religious 
aspiration with observed cosmic phenomena by the use of 
elementary experience, generally of individuals rather than 
of groups. In this, mythology differs from theology, which 
organizes religious thought on more genuinely social concepts 
than combats, love-making, and individual careers. In the 
case of practically all religions, with the exception of the 
Christian and other religions, like Mohammedanism, which 
have been derived from the Bible, the philosophical stage 
followed immediately upon the mythological and served to 
destroy confidence in the myth, even when, as in Greece, 
mythology continued as a form of popular religion long 
after Plato and Aristotle had all but universalized the philo- 
sophical attitude of mind. 

In the case of the Hebrew religion, whatever may have 
been its roots in early Semitic thought, it is all but impossible 
to discover any period of myth within its biblical stage. Both 
in it and in Christianity religious syncretism, it is true, did to 
some extent show itself, as in the influence of Baal- worship 



48 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

upon the Hebrews and in the appropriation of pagan customs 
and institutions on the part of the Christians. But Hebraism 
in its constructive principle was germinally monotheistic. 
It never was characterized by the mass of mythological 
details which rdost polytheistic religions have included. 
Hebraism used for its structural religious ideas not the adven- 
tures of individuals, as classical mythology did, but the 
universalizing conception of monarchy. Zeus was never a 
lawgiver, but Yahweh's relations with his people were always 
those between a king and his subjects. That is to say, the 
material of Hebrew religious thought, while like mythology in 
being dramatic rather than philosophical, was organized 
about an essentially political experience. 

Literature. — See Fiske, Myths and Mythmakers, (Boston: Osgood, 
1873; 3d ed., Houghton Mifflin Co., 1900). 

b) The relation between theology and philosophy. — ^A dis- 
tinction between theology and philosophy is hard to draw in 
terms of definition, for both alike seek to give some sort of 
unity to the highest thought of mankind. Furthermore, 
philosophy, like theology, is largely conditioned by social 
experience. Of the two, philosophy is by far the more fre- 
quent framework for religious thought. Indeed, one might 
even say that there never has been but one well-rounded 
theology, namely, that which has been produced by the Chris- 
tian thought of Western Europe. The other great religions 
which have used biblical material have resembled Western 
orthodoxy to some extent, but in the case of Mohammedanism 
and Judaism no theological system in any way comparable 
with that even of the arrested theology of the Eastern church 
has been developed. Yet practically all religions have had 
their philosophies, and in some cases, notably in Hinduism 
and the religion of Egypt, there has often been developed 
an esoteric system of teaching for the cultured classes along- 
side of gross superstitions among the masses. Western 
Christianity has, it is true, developed its secondary form in 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 49 

the practices of the Roman church; but this secondary Chris- 
tianity has always become at length organically embodied in a 
real theology, the subject-matter of which is the relationship 
of God and humanity, and which is only apologetically cos- 
mological or metaphysical. 

Further, while it is difficult to distinguish formally between 
theology and philosophy, the content and tendency of the two 
show marked differences. Philosophy as it has existed in the 
Western world has been concerned primarily with the con- 
struction of some world-view which finds its unity in a general 
conception such as the ideas of Plato and the idea of Hegel. 
Once having gained such an a priori principle, instead of 
working toward experience, it has by a process of abstraction 
worked away from experience. In the place of personal rela- 
tions it has substituted those of logic. Pragmatism, it is true, 
is an exception to this general tendency, but pragmatism 
itself is more concerned with the problems of reality and knowl- 
edge than with the systematic presentation of the relations of 
man and God as theology conceives them. And there is a 
further distinction between pragmatism and theology in that 
theology cannot be content to find its subject-matter wholly 
in the region of experience. Theology, since its subject- 
matter is primarily religion, must always involve a meta- 
physical reality, and above all emphasize relations between 
God and men. 

A comparison of philosophies with theology will show still 
another difference. Whereas the organizing, unifying prin- 
ciples of philosophy are, with the exception of those of prag- 
matism, in the realm of the meta-experiential, in the case of 
theology the unifying principle is some presupposition which 
determines social experience as a whole. In giving form and 
rational acceptability to its formulations the theology of the 
schools has utilized dominant philosophies, but this process 
belongs to the second rather than to the original and creative 
stratum of the organizing process. A theological system. 



50 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

as distinguished from its amplification, has sprung from the 
same subconscious social mind as that from which has sprung 
political theory. Interaction between politics and theology 
is always to be noted, but neither is strictly the origin of the 
other. The parallelism between the two is due to their com- 
mon origin. It is this fact that in part explains the survival 
in highly developed types of theology of those concepts which 
are fully intelligible only when they are historically valued as 
drawn from the experience of different economic and political 
stages through which the people creating the theology have 
passed in its development. 

Such a fact is easily appreciated. Theology is essentially 
concerned with relations or situations in which man and God 
are both involved. But to describe relations men inevitably 
make use of relations already in experience. In religion men 
seek help; they justify that search by the use of those cate- 
gories of social experience in which help has already been 
found and its methods of operation organized. And, further- 
more, a religion and its consequent theology has been the 
possession of a total group like the church, and has conse- 
quently relied upon customs, rites, and ceremonies as embody- 
ing its truths. 

Such control exercised by the non-religious presuppositions 
of social experience over a theological system, whether it be 
simple or highly developed, is inevitable, since such a system 
is only one phase of a social mind. A philosophical treatment 
of religion, and particularly a philosophy of religion, are always 
likely to overlook this fact because of their tendency to deal 
with concepts abstracted from experience. But speaking 
strictly, there is no history of doctrine; there is only the history 
of men who hold doctrines. A ''doctrinal man" is as impos- 
sible as an "economic man." Theology has been even slower 
than political economy to recognize this fact; but as soon as 
the doctrine-making process is seen to be only one phase of an 
evolving civiUzation, its social aspect at once appears clear, 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 51 

and the approach to theology is seen to be through history 
and group-Hfe rather than through philosophy. Indeed, it 
may be said that when philosophy becomes dominant in 
theology the period of creative theology, like the period of 
creative mythology, has closed. 

D. THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 
I. THE CREATIVE SOCIAL MIND 

Occidental civilization has resulted from the genetic 
succession of several creative social minds. These social 
minds have been the outcome of social experience of various 
sorts. Christianity, as a developing religion by which men 
of different grades of culture have sought to gain help from 
God in accord with the teaching and person of Jesus Christ, 
has appropriated and built into itself these dominant social 
minds, which in turn have been expressions of creative social 
forces. As social experience varies new intellectual con- 
cepts result. Doctrine-making, when analyzed, is the group- 
formulation or modification of inherited religious beliefs in 
accordance with these new concepts, for the purpose of vin- 
dicating and directing religious self-expression. Generally 
such formulation gives birth to but one doctrine in an epoch. 

To put the matter more distinctly, theology is the out- 
growth of the needs of religion for intellectual expression. 
Wherever religion is practiced, it is forced to meet the needs set 
by the social life of those to whom it ministers. In the nature 
of the case, the satisfaction of these needs, as well as the 
needs themselves, are determined by the habits and thought 
and social activity of any given epoch. Religious doubts or 
religious controversies, which have been the usual occasion 
of doctrinal growth, have in general sprung from the tension of 
soul resulting from the failure of inherited religious formulas 
to meet needs set by the dominant and creative social minds. 
The doctrines of Christianity have thus been religiously 



52 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

functional rather than absolute, and the development of 
Christianity has thus inevitably been a social process. 

The fact that in the midst of these successive social minds 
Christianity has proceeded in a definite direction, and has 
bred true to itself, is an argument that a generic but not 
absolutely and finally formulated Christianity is to be found 
by a study of the successive periods of creative theological 
thought. Such periods are epochs of that genetically related 
creative activity which has expressed itself in the successive 
social minds which have constituted the continuous stream of 
Western history. A nation without social development natu- 
rally has no developing theology. 

The relation of doctrine to the creative social mind from 
which both the new religious needs and their satisfaction 
spring is not quite as simple, however, as what has been said 
might imply. While a social mind has been formulating the 
particular doctrine demanded by the same new creative social 
impulse, it has usually accepted and defended other doctrines 
which it has inherited from a long line of predecessors. Thus 
new doctrines appear only at what might be called the tension- 
points of intellectual and social progress. These, however, 
are not, strictly speaking, inventions, but the organization of 
truths already held implicitly in the Christian religion, much 
as elements of a developing civilization are implicit in its 
fundamental genius. 

Quite as important is the further fact that just as some 
persons have alternating personalities, so most epochs have 
more than one social mind. In fact, much of the progress of 
history is due to the conflict between these social minds, each 
of which has tended to shape up some characteristic religious 
expression. 

These counter social minds express the social experience 
of minorities unproductive of immediate historical develop- 
ment. When expressing themselves in theology, they have 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 53 

given rise to the opposition the^ogies which have been side- 
tracked into the hmbo of heresy. The fact that the developing 
system of Christian teaching which we call orthodoxy per- 
sisted was not due to any superficial causes like persecution or 
state support. These indeed were agents, but the funda- 
mental explanation why one doctrine rather than another 
triumphed during moments of creative struggle is that it 
served better than the other the needs begotten by the con- 
tinuously developing and dominant social experience. Cdlild, 
for example, true progress in social development, any more 
than in theology, ever have resulted from social minds which 
could have been satisfied with gnosticism or the essential 
polytheism of Arius or the atomistic philosophy of Pelagius ? 
Counter-theologies have been valuable because they each have 
recognized something not included in the theology which 
ministered directly to the dominant social mind; but, despite 
common belief regarding heresies, they have never become 
some future orthodoxy. These theologies failed to function 
directly in the actual course of development of both society 
and Christianity. At the best they were of influence only as 
contributing causes of new social minds. 

These counter-theologies or heresies failed to persist for 
two reasons: they did not tend toward- the increasing 
knowledge of reality; and, however much influence they 
may have had in affecting the course of the development 
of orthodoxy, they have not satisfied the religious needs set 
by the dominant social minds which determined the main 
course of history. 

Only those Christian conceptions for which the genetically 
connected dominant social minds of successive periods have 
shown affinity have given the real content to our growing 
religion. In them, as by a sort of Mendelian formula, the 
generic quality of Christianity is to be found. Dominant 
traits alone have persisted in vigor. 



54 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

2. THE CREATIVE SOCIAL MINDS WHICH HAVE MADE OCCI- 
DENTAL HISTORY 

The creative social minds which have made Occidental 
history during this Christian era are the Semitic, which gave 
us the New Testament and the messianic drama; the Hellen- 
istic, which gave us ecumenical dogma; the imperialistic, 
which gave us the doctrine of sin and the Roman church; 
the feudal, which gave us the first real theory of atonement; 
the national, which gave us Protestantism; the bourgeois, 
which gave us modern evangelicalism; and the modern or 
scientific-democratic mind, which must give us the theology 
of tomorrow. It is not without importance that each of 
these dominant social minds has had its particular place of 
birth. Syria, the Hellenistic territory. Western Europe, 
Germany, England, and America have each been the home 
of one of these social minds which have resulted in doctrinal 
development. And it is not improbable that the Western 
movement of our civilization may yet add still another phase 
of social as well as doctrinal development — the cosmopolitan- 
fraternal, which, so far as the church is concerned, will find its 
birthplace in Asia. 

a) The contribution of the Semitic social mind to Christian 
theology. — Christianity considered theologically perpetuates 
the transcendental politics of the Hebrew. Sovereignty and 
subjects, law and judgment, punishment and rehabilitation, 
these great rubrics which express the presuppositions con- 
trolling the highest social activity of the Hebrew, became 
the skeleton of their religious thought. Christianity springs 
genetically, however, not directly from the Hebraism of the 
Old Testament, but from the Judaism of New Testament 
times. Its principles are those of Hebraism re-expressed in 
the messianic hope. 

How far Christianity at its start was from being a phi- 
losophy appears not only from the teaching of Jesus but also- 
from the expressed hostility of Paul to what he called ''the 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 55 

wisdom of this world, '^ a hostility which was vigorously urged 
by such church Fathers as TertuUian. The latter's treatise, 
The Prescription of Heretics^ is a plea for the supremacy of a 
dramatic theology as over against a philosophy. But neither 
Paul nor Tertullian was apart from other Christian writers. 
The theology to which they held was the limit within which 
philosophically minded Christians like Justin and Origen 
debated. This theology epitomized in regulafidei was nothing 
more nor less than a transcendentalized theory of that con- 
ception of government which was an unconscious but deter- 
minative presupposition of the entire social life of the ancient 
world. And its schema was the messianism which had been 
brought over from Judaism. 

Messianism undoubtedly had deep roots which must be 
traced back into the hopes and mythologies of ancient nations, 
particularly those of Bay Ionia and Persia, whose civilizations 
had affected Judaism. But there is no chief root that does 
not finally end in social practice. However great or, as it 
seems to me more probable, however slight may have been the 
role of the Gilgamesh epic in Jewish messianism, it is colored 
by the political habits of the age in which it arose. Similarly 
in the case of the influence of the Persian religion. Whatever 
may have been the relative importance of the reciprocal influ- 
ence of Mazdaism and Hebraism, the outcome in either case 
was a religious hope that involved transcendental politics. 

The Jewish messianic hope passed through two stages, both 
formally political. In the first the Jews believed that Yahweh 
would re-establish through ordinary methods the Jewish 
state as supreme over all its enemies; and in the second they 
hoped that the same triumphant nation would be established, 
not in the ordinary course of history, but by the miraculous 
intervention of God through his Anointed. Messianism is as 
truly political in its transcendental as in its politico-revolu- 
tionary stage. A sovereign God who seeks to establish his 
Kingdom by the conquest of the rival kingdom of Satan; a 



56 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

vice-gerent through whom the divine sovereign works and who 
is to conquer the hostile kingdom and estabhsh the Kingdom 
of God in which the law of God is to be established; a new 
age in which God is to be the supreme sovereign and his people 
supremely blessed while the arch-antagonist is bound and 
punished with his followers; a day of judgment in which the 
triumphant king metes out the fate of all mankind in accord- 
ance with its loyalty or disloyalty — these are the fundamental 
elements of the program of messianism. The resurrection 
simply assured the disposition of all mankind in the final 
world-order. It requires no argument to show that this 
schema is fundamental to Christian theology, and that it is 
indeed the organizing principle of the'ology as it subsequently 
was developed in the Western world and less imperfectly 
in the Greek church. Whatever else philosophy may have 
accomplished in the development of doctrine, it has never 
obscured these fundamental rubrics which were carried over 
into religion from the social presuppositions on which the 
ancient civilization was ultimately based. Indeed, Christian 
theology as an organized system might be described as the 
philosophical expansion of a political dramatic scenario in 
which the future and present relations of men and God are 
set forth in terms drawn from the poHtical experience of the 
Jewish people. 

Literature. — On the messianic hope, see Schiirer, Jewish People 
in the Time of Jesus Christ, III, § 29 (New York: Scribner, 1891); 
Mathews, The Messianic Hope in the New Testament, Part I (Chicago: 
University of Chicago Press, 1905). 

h) Some non-political elements in New Testament 
thought. — At two points this schema is modified in the New 
Testament and by later writers by the addition of non-political 
elements, which are really the most essential in Christianity. 
There is first the spiritual experience of the Christian. This is 
in turn twofold. Those phenomena which are called in the 
New Testament the gifts of the Holy Ghost have never been 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 57 

thoroughly worked into orthodoxy and have always been 
emphasized among groups (e.g., the Montanists) who have 
been to a considerable degree regarded as heretical. The 
reason is very plain. The general schema of historical ortho- 
doxy is transcendental politics redefined by the use of other 
elements of social experience and rationalized in detail by 
current philosophy. In such a schema there is no room for 
mysticism. That must always be extra-orthodox. 

Yet the second sort of spiritual experience, the actual 
transformation of the belieVer by God, has always been empha- 
sized by theology. In Greek Christianity this element played 
a very large role. We see it in the ''recapitulation" by Jesus, 
so attractive to Irenaeus, and even more in the conception of 
salvation as the theizing of human nature into incorruption. 
At one time it even bade fair to become the organizing prin- 
ciple for an entire system. But the development of Greek 
theology was arrested in its christological epoch, and Western 
theology became so far committed to a forensic outline of 
teaching that the saving transformation of the believer was 
attached to the idea of the church and its sacraments instead 
of being allowed to organize Christian teaching into a vital 
system. Yet it has always persisted in Western theology 
as a sort of parallel orthodoxy. If it instead of the messianic 
drama had become really central in orthodoxy, doctrinal 
development would have been far more vital and less authori- 
tative. In modern theology this spiritual and vital element 
is assuming a new importance and constitutes one of the great 
constructive principles for a theology which shall be more in 
accord with the presuppositions of modern social life so 
radically different from those expressed in absolute monarchy. 
Completely outside of the inherited messianic drama, it is 
essential Christianity itself. 

A second ^element, too little used by orthodoxy because 
it also lies outside of the politico-religious drama of messian- 
ism, is the experience of Jesus himself. All theologians, it is 



58 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

true, have generalized this element of historical Christianity 
in the same proportion as they have not been dominated by 
the transcendental politics of messianism, but the really 
personal life and significance of Jesus have lain outside of the 
norm of doctrinal development. Indeed, Chris tology has 
never been whole-heartedly interested in Jesus, even though 
it has devoted itself to his natures and person. The reason is 
simple: in the messianic schema the Christ is essentially 
functional. He must perform the work of God^s vice-gerent. 
For such an ofhce his earthly life was of small significance. 
Even his resurrection, which, if once accepted as historical, 
has a meaning wholly independent of the messianic argument, 
has been made contributory to the proof of his divine ofhce. 
The chief interest in the anti-Arian movement out of which 
orthodoxy rose lay in the desire for assurance that the Savior 
was divine. The ethical implications in the belief were all 
but overlooked. 

Yet in the actual experiences of the historical Jesus with 
their wealth of religious and moral appeal there was over- 
looked another organizing principle which modern theology 
recognizes, but to which historical orthodoxy was blind, 
because such experiences were not readily systematized in 
the messianic-drama theology. 

The reason that the messianic drama became the vertebral 
column, so to speak, of Christian doctrine is not far to seek. 
It is primitive Christianity itself, minus only these experi- 
mental elements. The New Testament and other early Chris- 
tian literature make it plain that the conquest of Christianity 
was due primarily to an enthusiasm born of the belief that the 
entire messianic program was to be immediately fulfilled and 
that those who accepted Jesus in his messianic capacity would 
participate in the joys of the literal kingdom which he was to 
estabHsh. The beliefs with which Christianity started on its 
conquest of the Roman Empire were utterly foreign to phi- 
losophy and were as dramatic as the social experience in which 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 59 

the early Christians shared. Recall only the impassioned 
hopes and arguments of Ignatius. To think of Christianity as 
originally an ethical, sociological, or philosophical movement 
is to misinterpret it completely. The elements of its hope 
were concrete and their unity was the unity of a drama. 
Therein was Christian theology in outline. 

Literature. — ^Literature on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is vast, 
but mostly dogmatic or mystical in character. For more scientific 
treatment reference may be made to Wood, The Spirit of God in Biblical 
Literature (New York: Armstrong, 1904); Swete, The Holy Spirit in the 
C/fwrc/j (London: Macmillan, 191 5); ^oy^qs, Studies in Mystical Religion 
(London: Macmillan, 1909); Fleming, Mysticism in Christianity 
(London: Scott, 1913); Cobb, Mysticism in the Creeds (London: Mac- 
millan, 1 9 14). 

c) The Hellenistic social mind. — When primitive Chris- 
tianity entered into the Greco-Roman world in the eastern 
part of the Empire, it entered a world untrained in the mes- 
sianic hope. It was therefore forced to restate itself in such 
forms as would satisfy certain very definite religious needs 
on the part of perhaps the most complicated social mind which 
the world has ever seen prior to that of modern days. 

The social mind of the eastern or Hellenistic part of the 
Roman Empire was excluded from political and social expres- 
sions by the policy adopted by the Roman conquerors. While 
there were incidental reforms instituted in various cities of the 
Empire, the religious need of the Greco-Roman life was essen- 
tially metaphysical and dramatically mystical. On the one 
side there was a need of an absolute God as over against 
idolatry; and on the other side there was the yearning for 
salvation through union or at least fellowship with this God. 
The former of these two needs appears everywhere in the 
philosophical writings, but most characteristically in the Stoic 
term ''Logos." The second of these needs is apparent in the 
rapid spread of the drama-mystery religions with their promise 
of salvation from evil and death through the union by worship 
with some god like Osiris or Mithra. 



6o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

When the message of Christian salvation came to this 
Greco-Roman world, it was immediately found capable 
of satisfying these two dominant needs of the social mind. 
What the other religions promised, Christianity, through 
the course of several hundred years of bitter struggle and 
persecution, actually supplied to the satisfaction of both the 
metaphysician and the mystic. The form taken by this 
satisfaction was the Nicene formula of a God who is meta- 
physically and substantially one and yet in terms of experi- 
ence has manifested himself personally so as to come into 
vital relationship with sinful man. The later discussions 
of the nature and person of Christ were not superimposed 
upon the original Christian religion, but were the growth of 
the new exposition of the content of the new doctrine of God. 
The old conceptions persisted, but were interpreted through 
new carrying concepts. The Nicene theology, so far from 
being an addition to Christianity, was vital Christianity 
itself functioning in certain definite religious conditions and 
under the control of the Hellenistic social mind. Arianism 
failed not so much because it was finally outlawed as because 
it did not so express the elemental Christian impulse and belief 
as to satisfy the needs of the Greco-Roman social mind. 

Literature. — On Roman and Greek religions in the time of the New 
Testament, see Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius 
(New York: Macmillan, 1904) ; Mahaffy, The Greek World under Roman 
Sway (New York: Macmillan, 1890); and especially Cumont, Les 
religions orientates dans le paganisme romain (Paris: Leroux, 1906; 
English translation, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [Chicago: 
Open Court Co., 191 1]). For general discussion of the influence of 
Greco-Roman religions in the development of Christianity, see Case, 
The Evolution of Early Christianity (Chicago: University of Chicago 
Press, 191 5); Kennedy, St. Paul and the Mystery Religions (London: 
Hodder & Stoughton, 191 3). 

The philosophizing of theologians of the early church 
never destroyed their Christian inheritance. By the middle 
of the second century, however, the messianic expectation had 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 6i 

ceased to be concrete and had become transcendental. True, 
there were those like the Montanists who fought against this 
transformation and sought to maintain the messianic drama- 
theology in full literalism. But so strong had become the 
tendency to revalue the messianic program as a philosophy 
that this more primitive type of Christianity was repeatedly 
relegated to the limbo of heresy. Notwithstanding the 
contributions made by TertulHan to Christian doctrine and 
vocabulary, the line of theological development runs not 
through him, but through that remarkable group of Alex- 
andrians who made regula fidei the basis of a theology by 
synthesizing the messianic drama with Hellenistic culture. 

This transition can be observed primarily in two par- 
ticulars, (i) With the disappearance of the hope that the 
heavenly Kingdom would be immediately established the 
Christian teachers passed from the heralding to the rationaliz- 
ing of their message of deliverance. At once they became 
involved in disputes with representatives of contemporary 
philosophies, all of them profoundly interested in cosmological 
speculations. 

We have so little first-hand knowledge of men like Marcion 
that it is unsafe to speculate as to what Christianity might 
have become had the church leaders not stood manfully by the 
messianic outline, but it can hardly be doubted that the new 
religion would have been lost in the swarming gnostic sects. 
The line of defense as laid down by TertuUian was implicity 
itself. "Away with all attempts to produce a mottled Chris- 
tianity of Stoic, Platonic, and dialectic composition! We 
want no curious disputation after possessing Christ Jesus, no 
inquisition after enjoying the gospel! With our faith we 
desire no further behef. For this is our palmary faith, that 
there is nothing which we ought to believe besides." Ter- 
tullian's final appeal is to regula fidei, which is the very quintes- 
sence of an unphilosophical, dramatic summary of Christian 
messianism. 



62 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

(2) But the Alexandrine teachers chose quite another 
method. With them regula fidei was final, but it was also 
defensible philosophically. Accordingly, for centuries the 
defense proceeded in the way of giving the Messiah a cos- 
mological value. Materials for such redefinition lay close 
at hand in the New Testament terms ''Son of God" and 
''Logos." 

In the New Testament usage the term ''Son of God" was 
simply a synonym for "Messiah," and the Pauline usage by 
no means served to modify the politico-dramatic expectation 
of messianism. In the hands of the Alexandrine theologians, 
however, it passed from the social presuppositions of politics 
to the even more universal presupposition of generation. 
A study of Justin Martyr and Origen will enable one to trace 
this clearly. Instead of the conquering king we have the 
incarnate God foretold by the prophets; and this doctrine of 
incarnation which played practically no role whatever in Paul- 
inism becomes a central feature of the new interpretation of 
regula fidei. But the transition from the political to the 
parental-filial presupposition may be seen even before Justin 
in the struggles of Docetism to reach a rational Christology. 
Indeed, the dangers inherent in this heresy appear in the 
Johannine epistles, where a test of genuine Christian belief is 
to be seen in the assertion that the Christ has come in the 
flesh. The question under discussion did not concern the 
Godhead but the historical person Jesus. How could the Son 
of God be genuinely human? The source of the difficulty 
in accepting the Hebraic conception of unction is doubtless 
to be found in the fact that Christianity had passed froih the 
Jewish people, where messianism in its full content was a 
religious presupposition, to the Gentile world, in which the 
possibility of incarnation through divine generation was a 
universally accepted presupposition. But even here it will be 
observed that the transition is from one social presupposition 
to another — from poHtics to paternity. 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 63 

Literature. — ^Harnack, History of Dogma (English translation [Boston : 
Little, Brown & Co., 1 896-1 900]), is the great aiithority on the devel- 
opment of early doctrine. 

A more genuinely philosophical concept appears in the 
Logos. The most significant transition in the history of 
Christology occurred when the Logos of cosmological sig- 
nificance was identified with the begotten Son of God and the 
new conception was injected into the old messianic formula 
of regula fidei. The Logos, then, with Justin became the 
revealer of a new and sacred philosophy. 

This tendency to elevate concrete dramatic expectation 
into a transcendental, philosophical formula reached its cul- 
mination when the contest over the sonship of the Logos 
passed from the realm of history into the realm of the meta- 
physics of the Godhead and the center of interest in the Son 
became not Jesus but the second person of a trinity. Just as 
the Kingdom of God ceased to become a definite social order 
upon the earth and became a transcendental heaven did the 
doctrine of divine sonship pass from the stage of history into 
the stage of metaphysics. But again the mold in which the 
new doctrine was shaped was not in itself metaphysical but 
one of social experience. The great discussion of the century 
that culminated in the Council of Nicea centered about two 
terms, ''eternal generation" and persona. We are accus- 
tomed to overlook this fact because so much attention came 
to be centered upon the metaphysical term ^'consubstantial"; 
but consubstantiability was only a marker for the genuine 
content expressed by the sonship of the Logos through eternal 
generation rather than creation. And as any fair study of 
Athanasius will show, it is the expression '' begotten, not 
made" which is the real heart of the Nicene Creed. Con- 
substantiability was a dangerous metaphysical concept 
blurred by Latin philistinism, used as a shibboleth against 
Arianism to protect the content of "eternal generation." 
The organon, so to speak, by which '' eternal generation" 



64 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

was rationalized was the legal term suggested by the lawyer 
TertulHan, persona. While it is true that in the entire trini- 
tarian controversy the tendency was toward abstraction, it is 
beyond question that the final decision of the Nicene Council 
was regarded, not as a completely metaphysical, but rather 
as a dramatic and symbolic expression. The opposition which 
Athanasius felt to the word ^'consubstantial'^ was largely due 
to his fear lest the word should involve Christian theology in 
metaphysical heresies. What he and his party desired was 
the maintenance of the actual relationship which the figure 
/'eternal generation '^ expressed. The appropriation of per- 
sona, a term so essential to Roman law, was due to the fact 
that it connoted something that gave the theological truth 
a universalized social, i.e., forensic, connotation. However 
metaphysical the language of the disputants in the Arian 
controversy, the S3nithetic rather than the definitive force of 
the term appears from the well-known expression of Augustine 
to the effect that the word persona is used to express a fact 
which really transcends formal definition. 

Literature. — Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarian- 
ism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1900), is a readable account of a 
difficult matter. 

But while thus the messianic term Christ lost much of its 
original content and became metaphysical, the entire schema 
of the Christian hope remained unchanged. The philoso- 
phizing of ecumenical Christianity never affected the dramatic 
program contained in the old Roman symbol, and even its 
metaphysical Trinitarianism was itself determined by the 
analogies of social experience. The ecumenical creeds never 
passed beyond the relation of the Son to the Father except as 
regards the person of Jesus and, somewhat incidentally, in 
the matter of the procession of the Holy Ghost, and never 
attempted to reorganize the messianic program as a whole. 

d) Latin orthodoxy as determined by imperalism. — When 
one passes from ecumenical to Latin theology, the dominance 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 65 

of the original messianic program is at once apparent. Whereas 
the Greeks with their constitutional inability to organize 
politically turned to the concept of salvation as a gaining of 
immortality, the Latin world with its passion for administra- 
tion and law undertook to develop the governmental pre- 
suppositions which lay back of the primitive Christian hope. 
Indeefi, the history of doctrinal development in the Western 
world might be described as the construction of a theology 
on the basis of transcendental politics. Theology thus 
advanced parallel with the development of the church as an 
institution. 

As the Christian religion spread westward it carried with 
itself not only the original messianic conception but also these 
new formulas so full of religious power. It was not merely 
church authority which prevailed in their acceptance; it was 
a new intellectual and religious harmony. Anything less than 
a Christ possessed of the divine nature was repudiated by that 
Western social mind of which Augustine is the epitome and 
expression. The success of Arianism among certain German 
tribes simply makes the real progress of generic Christianity 
more obvious. 

As all students of institutions would admit, it was really 
in the West that the Roman genius best expressed itself. 
It was in Italy, Gaul, and Spain that by an epoch-making series 
of experiments the Roman world evolved the imperial idea. 
To the East this idea was carried in terms of officialism, but 
the ancient civiHzations were too deeply bedded to be replaced 
by Roman methods, and remained a force against which the 
imperial idea struggled only to find itself transformed into 
likeness to Oriental despotism. In the Western world the 
imperial idea was really creative. It built up new civilizations 
and worked itself into the very tissues of a growing new world. 
Naturally it was in the Western world that the deep religious 
need was felt of administrative efficiency in religion akin to the 
political efficiency of the Empire. This was especially felt 



66 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

when the Empire itself began to weaken, and the only con- 
servative or preservative force in the Western civilization was 
the church. It was natural, therefore, that Christianity 
should have still further developed itself in terms of con- 
temporary social efficiency. The Roman Catholic church 
was not the invention of this or that man; it was rather the 
outcome of the union of the vital impulses of Christianity, in 
part already recognized, with the social mind of the Western 
world. So thoroughly did it satisfy the need of the region in 
which the institutions of Rome persisted that to this day 
there is a well-marked social and political — not to mention 
religious — distinction between the countries which had been 
thoroughly Romanized and those countries of Northern 
Europe where Roman influence had never triumphed, or 
where Roman institutions were destroyed by un-Romanized 
invaders. 

But Christianity in Western Europe came in contact with 
another widespread social attitude, the pessimism and distrust 
of human nature so inevitable in a period when a civilization 
literally disintegrates before peoples' eyes. Almost para- 
doxically the great religious need which this terrible collapse 
of civilization engendered was some teaching that could 
raise men from trust in discredited himian nature to trust in 
an eternal and supreme God. Augustine formulated and fixed 
this new phase in the Christian religion. His doctrine of sin 
is, of course, involved irt the New Testament, but with him 
it was systematized in our religion. Christianity was not only 
organized in terms of liberation from the natural corruption of 
human nature, but was made to serve the purposes of faith in 
a God who was greater than his world and was not dependent 
upon human virtue to bring about his ends. The doctrine of 
original sin and of God's sovereignty were, therefore, by no 
means accretions, but the expressions of the vital impulse of 
Christianity as it brought power and courage to the mind of 
Western Europe. 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 67 

e) Feudalism and Christian theology. — The history of the 
Middle Ages gains unity as one sees imperialism expressed in 
the Holy Roman Empire; but so far as Christianity was con- 
cerned, this attempt at a social order administered by Jesus 
Christ through his two vice-gerents, emperor and pope, 
expressed itself almost entirely within the development of the 
church itself. There was, however, another creative social 
mind which was to have powerful influence on the develop- 
ment of Christian thought — -feudalism. 

Feudalism as a creative conception of social relationships 
is not difficult to state, however much we may fail to under- 
stand its origin. It is the expression of life subject to definite 
economic conditions, temporary, it is true, but, wherever 
found, pervading all the thinking of its social order. Chris- 
tianity came to the world of feudalism with its well-developed 
message of a triune sovereign God, of a Savior possessed of the 
divine nature and of original sin. Anselm endeavored to 
think these three together by systematizing the divine method 
of salvation according to the principles of feudaHsm. The 
significance of the death of Christ, though a part of the original 
message, had never been systematized with other Christian 
belief. It had been set forth dramatically as sacrifice or 
ransom. Such dramatic presentations had been carried over 
into the church services, as the mass; but minds dominated 
by the social conceptions of feudalism and the passion for 
system seen in scholasticism could not be content to leave 
their religion with no connecting thought between salvation 
from sin and the all-perfect God. Such systematizing was 
accomplished by Anselm's extension of feudal concepts into 
the realm of theology. As a complement of the inherited 
doctrines, the death of Christ was shown by him to be the 
satisfaction of the honor of God, injured by man's sin. Thus 
Christianity found itself for the first time possessed of com- 
plete symmetry. While the Anselmic doctrine of the atone- 
ment never became a part of official orthodoxy in any such 



68 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

sense as did the philosophy of substance and the belief in 
original sin, it did none the less give direction to the de- 
velopment of Christian thought. From his time Chris- 
tianity has always seen in the death of Christ something 
which has made plain to the world the ethical unity of a 
forgiving Sovereign. 

Literature. — Taylor, The Mediaeval Mind (New York: Macmillan, 
191 1), is a masterly treatment of this fascinating subject on Anselm. 
See the English translation of the Cur Deus Homo (Chicago: Open 
Court Co., 1903), and Foley, Anselm' s Doctrine of the Atonement (New 
York: Longmans, 1909). 

/) The nationalistic social mind and theology. — The period 
which followed feudalism was essentially a struggle between 
the imperialistic conception in Church and State and the new 
spirit of monarchy and individualism. The Reformation was 
far more than a mere theological or even church struggle. It 
rooted itself in a changing order with new economic, political, 
and cultural forces. On its religious side it was an extension 
into theology of the same forces which were operative ih the 
shaping of our modern state, and, conversely, an extension 
into the course of political development of those spiritual 
conceptions which give worth to personality. 

But at this point we notice the practical completion of 
another religious development in terms of Roman Catholicism. 
Just as the Greek church has never markedly advanced 
beyond the theological development expressed in the ecu- 
menical creeds, so the Latin church stopped its development 
at the point reached by scholasticism, imperialism, and 
feudalism. Individual dogmas, it is true, have been added by 
the Latin church, but they have been little more than formal 
ratifications of beliefs involved in ecclesiastical imperialism. 
The Roman Curia in its present struggle with Modernism is 
thoroughly consistent in its insistence that its theologians 
shall revert to the study of Thomas Aquinas, and this fact 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 69 

makes it plain that the Roman church as yet does not pro- 
pose to be influenced constructively by the new social minds 
which have created periods since the sixteenth century. 

Speaking generally, and with due regard for the appar- 
ently exceptional situation in France, in those nations which 
embraced the new monarchical conception born of the new 
conditions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the develop- 
ment of Christianity has proceeded in terms of Protestantism. 
Conversely, Protestant theology has been marked by an 
extension into theology of the monarchical idea as opposed 
to the imperialistic. This is less true in the case of Luther 
than in that of Calvin, but the change is obvious in the new 
interest shown by the sixteenth century in God's sovereignty 
and in the substitution of the satisfaction of his punitive 
(sovereign) justice for the satisfaction of his unsatisfied 
(feudal) honor. But such a development has been genetic. 
Protestantism, notwithstanding its laxity in some of its 
organizing concepts, has held true to the formulas of ecumeni- 
cal orthodoxy. 

The effort of Deism to build up a sort of cosmic constitu- 
tional monarchy similar to that which was being built up 
contemporaneously in England is a striking illustration of 
the impossibihty for the social mind to shape up a permanent 
religious concept that does not embody the fundamental 
Christian concepts as to God. In its failure to perpetuate 
the belief that God is in actual control of his world Deism 
was also an illustration of the fact that the elements of generic 
Christianity are to be recognized in their capacity so to unite 
with the dominant social minds as to produce doctrines which 
satisfy all succeeding social minds. A constitutionally limited 
God is a religious impossibility for the scientific mind. He 
must be absolute or he is not God. 

g) The age of revolutions and theology. — The eighteenth 
century might be described as the period in which the bourgeois 



70 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

class became dominant in politics through revolution. It 
followed naturally, therefore, that its influence should be felt 
in all phases of social life. This can be seen in the rapid exten- 
sion of commerce, the spread of a limited democracy, as well 
as in the estabhshment of our present capitahstic system. 
But quite as clearly it can be seen in the field of religion. 

The bourgeois social mind had inherited the Protestant 
theology with its emphasis upon metaphysical matters such 
as those of free will and foreordination. Its needs, however, 
were vastly more pjractical than those which the professional 
theologians and the higher ecclesiastics could satisfy. There 
resulted, therefore, from the interplay of Christianity with 
this new spirit an emphasis on the atonement largely in com- 
mercial terms which was to have much the same influence in 
religion as the bourgeois movement had exercised in politics. 
For it is to this union that we owe evangelicalism, that char- 
acteristic t3rpe of religious interest which was so evident 
among churchmen of all Christian bodies in the first half of the 
nineteenth century. Centering as it did around the substi- 
tutionary atonement, it brought home afresh to a commercial 
age the vitalizing conception of a divine love that dared to 
suffer in order to serve. A great and sacrificial conception of 
God could not fail to find expression in the religious life of the 
church. However selfish and commercial certain forms of 
evangelicalism may appear, however much it has failed to 
appreciate the inefliciency of aristocratic conceptions in 
morality, to it are due the abohtion of slavery, reforms in 
prisons, and the care of the insane and of the poor, the estab- 
lishment of Young Men's Christian Associations, Bible and 
foreign mission societies, colleges, and theological seminaries. 
Altogether evangelicalism is to be credited with profoundly 
ethical sympathies. 

This bourgeois attitude took two other very different 
theological directions. On the one side was Unitarianism, in 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 71 

which, Hke an insurgent bourgeoisie, a respectable humanity, 
sensitive to its natural rights in the sight of a sovereign God, 
rose up and repudiated belief in total depravity, and, in 
consequence, the orthodox conceptions of God and Christ. 
On the other side was Wesleyanism, which became a training 
school of religious democracy, vital religious experience, and 
aggressive but not excessively theological orthodoxy. The 
subsequent history of these two movements shows clearly 
which best represented generic Christianity in its relation with 
the dominant social mind. Wesleyanism and its kindred 
nonconformist groups live on, possessed of unchecked power 
of spiritual parentage. 

h) The modem social mind. — ^At this point we come to the 
modern world in which tendencies are as yet hardly sufficiently 
developed to be traced with precision. But the religious needs 
of the dominant social mind are at once apparent. Trained 
as we are in scientific thought and surrounded as we are by the 
forces of an adolescent democracy, it is inevitable that we 
should seek to satisfy reUgious needs in accordance with these 
dominant forces. In the light of the past it is inevitable that 
these satisfactions will be gained only on the condition that 
first, they include the vital propagating elements of Chris- 
tianity rather than some current philosophy; and, secondly, 
that the dominant social mind, rather than some counter 
or fractional or anachronistic social mind, be permitted to 
shape up dramatically rather than metaphysically the 
formulas of our religious thinking. The latter demand is 
perhaps a little more clearly organized than the former. We 
can appreciate the demand of a scientific method and we can 
formulate with some precision the share which democracy 
must have in our religious development; but the religious 
thinkers of the day are not yet at one as to what elements of 
our inherited religion are essential to the continued efficiency 
of Christianity. 



72 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

E. WHY THEOLOGY HAS NOT DEVELOPED PARALLEL 

WITH THE PRESUPPOSITIONS OF SOCIAL 

EXPERIENCE 

While thus the influence of the presuppositions of social 
experience is to be traced in the development of doctrinal 
systems, it is also true that there has been no such complete 
parallelism in the development of theology and social insti- 
tutions as might be expected. Theologies have not always 
been orthodox, but they have seldom reached wide acceptance 
when diverging widely. Furthermore, periods of intellectual 
and political progress have always been marked by distrust 
as well as transformation of theological systems. 

The reason for these discrepancies between the logical and 
the actual relation of theology to the social mind are not far 
to seek. 

a) The influence of philosophy. — In the first place, theology 
has always been checked in its response to the creative social 
forces by a tendency to become a philosophy. The history 
of theology on the one side may be described as a struggle 
between these dramatic conceptions in which men have 
endeavored to make real to themselves the significance of their 
religious beliefs and philosophy. Such a conflict was inevi- 
table from the fact, already noted, that philosophy is both 
the product of the same social experience as theological 
thought, and at the same time is a phase of that social mind 
with which theology has to reckon. In its earlier stages 
theology was forced into conflict with systems of thought 
which undertook to organize Christianity in terms of some 
cosmological or metaphysical principle. Especially was this 
true in the case of the great contest lasting for centuries 
between Catholicism and Gnosticism. The gnostic movement, 
strictly speaking, was not theological. Combining the cos- 
mological idea of emanation and the theosophical idea of 
dualism, it undertook to embody in itself such elements of the 
New Testament as it could. Its success was great, and there 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 73 

resulted what might fairly be called a rival religion which was 
Christian only in the sense that it embodied certain elements 
of Christianity in a synthetic philosophical schema covering 
all phases of human thought. 

In their struggle with this rival the Christian thinkers, 
as has already been pointed out, strove to do two things: 
first, to maintain the supremacy of the messianic schema 
which was involved in the baptismal symbol and regula fidei; 
and, second, to show forth the philosophical significance of 
such doctrines as were in process of formulation. That 
Catholicism conquered was due to many causes, but doubtless 
as much as any to the fact that, although cosmological sig- 
nificance was given to Christ reconceived as Logos, the second 
person of the Trinity, the Catholic scheme of doctrine was not 
subjected to that world- view which was the basis of the gnostic 
teaching. On one side Catholicism protected itself by the 
criticism of the extravagant ideas of Gnosticism and on the 
other side by the appeal to that which had been "always, 
everywhere, and by all" believed. This latter appeal was of 
course not an answer to the claim of Gnosticism to be the true 
philosophy of religion, but it did succeed in making clear that 
Gnosticism was not the Christianity which was contained in 
the New Testament. Furthermore, in refusing to answer 
philosophical objections to Christianity by philosophical 
arguments and by concentrating attention upon its strictly 
theological elements, Catholicism accomplished two things: 
it preserved the theological elements which it had inherited, 
and it repudiated a view of theology as of necessity adapting 
itself to current modes of thought at the expense of its own 
criteria. 

It has been inevitable, therefore, that in the same propor- 
tion as a philosophy has become identified with the strictly 
theological elements of a church system the two should have 
been carried along together. A striking illustration of that 
is Thomas Aquinas, whose Christianized Aristotelianism 



74 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

thoroughly identified philosophical method and point of 
view with theological positions. The current struggle of the 
Roman Curia with Modernism is an illustration of how a 
theology which has grown rigid through the dogmatizing 
of philosophical concepts fails to respond to the new presup- 
positions which condition the evolution of social experience 
and philosophy itself. But similar illustrations could be 
drawn from Lutheranism and Calvinism. Each of these 
great systems has suffered a hardening of the arteries of 
theology because of the introduction into it of philosophical 
concepts transformed into orthodoxy by ecclesiastical and 
political authority. In consequence neither system responds 
readily to the modern mind. 

b) The retarding influence of doctrinal orthodoxy. — Thus 
we are brought to the second reason for the failure of theology 
to develop pari passu with social evolution. The philosophiz- 
ing of theology might have been to a considerable extent 
rectified in the course of the development of Christianity had 
it not been rendered static by being transformed into authori- 
tative orthodoxy. 

A student of church history does not need to be told how 
this process proceeded. Generally speaking, it may be said 
to have begun in an attempt at some adjustment of the in- 
herited Christian faith to a philosophical mode of thinking; 
this was followed by a period of controversy in which the 
defenders of the inherited regula fidei were forced to justify 
their position by the use of some philosophical concept; there- 
upon there occurred the holding of a council which formulated 
the doctrine in dispute in accordance with regula fidei or creed 
and the philosophy of its defenders, and then made the accep- 
tance of its formularies the test of right behef. As the 
decisions of these councils were as a rule enforced by the state 
as well as by the penalty of excommunication from the church, 
theology steadily grew less responsive to the changing social 
mind. 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 75 

We see here the fundamental weakness of a doctrine which 
depends solely or chiefly upon authority. It of necessity 
perpetuates philosophical and social survivals. However 
serviceable it may have been to the age in which it was formu- 
lated; however it may have functioned helpfully because of its 
participation in the dynamic presuppositions of the life of its 
day, it grows incapable of service and helpfulness in ages of 
different character. Indeed, we might almost say, in the 
same proportion in which it did function well does its rigidity 
render it incapable of vital service to those communities which 
are dominated by different social minds. For this, if for no 
other reason, there is imminent danger lest the essential 
and permanent values which orthodoxy expresses shall be lost 
to those who no longer accept the philosophy and no longer 
share in the social experience which orthodoxy has embodied 
in itself. 

Literature. — A notable treatise on this aspect of Christianity is 
Sabatier, Religions of Authority and the Religion of the Spirit (New York: 
McClure Phillips, 1905). 

c) The constructive task of theology. — ^Yet this cannot 
obscure the fact which the history of the doctrine-making 
process discloses. Orthodoxy is the outcome of a process, 
unhappily arrested by ecclesiasticism, by which fundamental 
religious realities were mediated to religious needs of a given 
period by the use of the presuppositions of that period's social 
experience. Any theological reconstruction, therefore, that 
would be thoroughgoing and do for our age what the original 
creators of theology did for theirs must face two tasks : first, 
it must distinguish between the theological schema which 
came over from the messianic Christianity of the primitive 
church and that philosophical construction which has built 
up by it as defense an explanation ; and, second, it must evalu- 
ate the schema itself in terms of religious efficiency. This 
second is the primary task of today. As long as it is neglected 
will theology be in distress. Christianity can never dominate 



76 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

our modern world by merely changing its philosophical ele- 
ment. That is, of course, demanded; but the fundamental 
need is that of dramatic analogies drawn from our dominant 
social mind by which religious thinking can satisfy their re- 
ligious needs, that longing for divine help, which our intense 
and complicated life originates. 

Theology today as never before cannot be replaced by 
either psychology or philosophy. The position which the 
theologian will take in the present moment of unrest will be 
very largely determined by his conception of the aim of the- 
ology. If, as many hold, the purpose of theology is to give 
final and unchangeable formulations for religious experience 
and so to express religious truth that it shall be as statically 
absolute as metaphysical reality itself, there is no appeal 
except that of orthodoxy itself to the authority of either 
councils, the pope, or an a priori belief in an infallible Scrip- 
ture. It goes without saying that such an appeal will com- 
pletely break with our modern world. If, on the other hand, 
the purpose of theology is held to be functional and if it is 
an ever-growing approximation to ultimate reality through the 
satisfaction it gives to the ever-developing and changing reli- 
gious needs of different periods, then theological method 
becomes to a considerable extent empirical and pragmatic. 
Theological reconstruction will seek, first of all, not philo- 
sophical means of adapting a theological schema to our modern 
world, but will rather reproduce the actual procedure of 
theology in its creative epochs. That is to say, as theology in 
such epochs has utilized the dynamic presuppositions con- 
ditioning all social activity in general will it today seek to 
utilize such presuppositions as are now creative. 

Nor is this a difficult task. The theologian who approaches 
his problem from the point of view of social experience rather 
than that of metaphysics will recognize two presuppositions 
which are reconstituting our modern world: evolution and 
creative democracy. Just how these two presuppositions 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 77 

can be used for theological reconstruction must be left to 
an honest and scientific methodology. 

The historical study of a religion like our own is not 
content to deal only with facts and their relations. It seeks 
not only to discover the origins and to trace the course of 
development of Christian truths; it must also evaluate them. 

When one evaluates historically our heritage of doctrinal 
formulas, he will discover in them both form and content. 
The latter may have been recognized without reflection 
throughout the history of the church, but the doctrine- 
making process at last brought it into consciousness and sys- 
tematic perspective. It is this fact that explains how it is 
that Christianity has always attempted to reproduce biblical 
materials. Such determination is not due merely to a belief 
in the inspiration of the Scriptures; it is really due to the 
essential nature of Christianity itself, for the teaching and 
person of Jesus as seen through actual experience have always 
been the ultimate criteria to which the church has reverted. 
The normative elements of our religion, however stated, are 
always traceable to the relations of the church to its Founder. 
The successive developments of doctrine might be thus 
described as our religion functioning in the new situations set 
by dominant social minds for the purpose of making clear to 
successive generations the reality of that salvation which Jesus 
brings. Generic Christianity is, in fact, the gospel as it has 
developed under new social influences. 

It is thus not difficult to see, back of these successively 
organized doctrines, the elements which go to make up 
generic Christianity. Stated as far as possible without the 
doctrinal forms given them by successive social minds, they 
are as follows: 

1. Men are sinful, and, if they are to avoid the outcome of 
sin, in need of salvation by God. 

2. The God of the universe is knowable as the God of love, 
who in personal self-expression seeks reconciliation with men. 



78 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

3. God has revealed himself as Savior in the historical 
person, Jesus. 

4. God comes into any human life that seeks him, both 
directly through prayer and service, and indirectly through 
social organizations like the church, transforming it and 
making it in moral quality like himself. 

5. The death of Christ is the revelation of the moral 
unity of the love and law of God. 

6. Those who accept Jesus as the divine Lord and Savior 
constitute a community in special relationship with God. 

7. Such persons may look forward to triumph over 
death and entrance into the Kingdom of God. 

These fundamentals of generic Christianity are not 
dependent upon the particular type of philosophy in which 
they have been adjusted to the needs of social minds. They 
are as old as the New Testament. As a growing religious 
inheritance they have been constantly recast and reappreci- 
ated. Various social minds, in proportion as they have felt 
the need of the help one or all of them can give, have used 
their own vocabularies to express them, but even when the 
vocabularies themselves have in some cases grown unin- 
telligible, the reality itself has continued to function. 

In the light of these facts it seems inevitable, therefore, 
that, if Christianity is to go on developing, these same funda- 
mentals must be brought into contact with the dominant 
social mind of today. The Christianity of tomorrow will 
not be a new religion, nor will it be a merely reiterated, un- 
critically accepted orthodoxy. It will be a genetic develop- 
ment of those behefs which have constituted the permanent 
elements in historical orthodoxy. The particular formulas in 
which this generic theology has been expressed do not function 
well with modern men, but that which they express — which 
is generic Christianity — is possessed of religious value and 
power. 



THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 79 

At one point we already see evidence of new doctrinal 
development. The religion of our modern world is already 
shaping up the social as well as the individual content of the 
eschatology of the original gospel message, as yet so imper- 
fectly evaluated, and therefore so often literally presented. 
But this awaited doctrine of salvation, which our age, because 
of its new social passion, is the first clearly to need, and, 
because of its more scientific understanding of man's nature 
and of its new social sympathies, is the first to grasp and 
attempt to organize in terms of life and society, will be 
genetically the outcome of the generic Christianity of the past. 
It will mediate God to the individual in his personal sorrow 
and temptation, and also to the complex of individual activi- 
ties we call society. However much grander and richer it 
may become, generic Christianity tomorrow, as yesterday, will 
prove itself capable of satisfying the reHgious needs of a 
dominant social mind in terms and concepts, both individual 
and collective, which are furnished by that social mind. 
Expressing itself in an enriched, genetically progressing, and 
far-reaching way of life, it can have no other foundation than 
that which is laid, Jesus Christ our Lord. Any form of Chris- 
tianity that is not in attitude and fundamental sympathies 
at one with the religious spirit of historical Christianity, 
in whatever way it may reject the philosophies or the dramatic 
pictures and analogies in which this spirit has been expressed, 
will be spiritually weak. 



III. THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AND 
OF THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL 

By J. M. POWIS SMITH 
Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature, University of Chicago 



ANALYSIS 

PAGES 

Introduction. — The aim and the process of the study of the Old 
Testament 83-85 

1. The Process of Translation. — The character of the Hebrew lan- 
guage. — Methods and helps in the study of Hebrew. — Lexicography. 

— Obscure passages 85-89 

2. The Textual Criticism of the Old Testament. — The existing 
manuscripts. — The state of the Massoretic text. — Emendation of the 
text. — Duplicate passages. — Comparison of ancient versions. — 
The Septuagint and daughter-versions. — Other Greek versions. — 
The Samaritan Pentateuch. — The Targums. — ^The Peshitta. — The 
Vulgate. — Conjectural emendations. — Should the Hebrew language 
be required of all students of theology? — ^How best to study the 

Old Testament in English 89-104 

3. The Literary Criticism and Interpretation of the Old Testament. 
— The function of criticism. — The criteria of poetry. — Varieties of 
prose. — Composite authorship. — The problem of authorship. — ^The 
problem of date. — The author's purpose. — Comparative study of 
literature. — The art of interpretation 104-119 

4. The History of the Hebrews. — Scope of history. — Dating of 
sources. — Facts vs. interpretation of facts. — The interpretative bias. 
— Geography as a historical source. — Archaeology and history. — 
History of the Semitic world. — Problems in Hebrew history . . 1 19-135 

5. The Religion of the Hebrews. — Religion and history. — Religion 
and culture. — Hebrew religion and Semitic religion. — Problems in 

the study of Hebrew religion 136-144 

6. The Religious Value of the Old Testament. — The Canon. — 
History of the interpretation of the Old Testament. — The value of 
the Old Testament. — The Old Testament in relation to the New. — 
The Old Testament and systematic theology. — The Old Testament 

and vital religion 144-161 



III. THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AND 
OF THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL 

INTRODUCTION 

The primary purpose in the study of the writings of the 
Hebrews is the discovery of the exact thoughts which the 
writers themselves desired to express. The task of inter- 
pretation is not a simple one, even when writer and inter- 
preter belong to the same race, speak the same language, live 
in the same age, and have the same background of history and 
civilization. When none of these advantages are to the credit 
of the interpreter, his work is rendered immeasurably more 
difficult. In proportion as these racial, linguistic, and socio- 
logical barriers can be removed or surmounted, the interpreter 
may hope for success in his attempt to enter into the thought 
of the author. But just as the only way to learn to swim is by 
swimming, so the interpreter of the Old Testament must gain 
his equipment for interpretation in the main from the very 
literature that he is to interpret. Aside from the larger 
Semitic literature, of which the Old Testament forms a part, 
and to which it constitutes in itself the easiest and most natu- 
ral approach, there is no source whence the interpreter may 
derive the point of view, the linguistic skill, the anthropological 
approach, and the historical knowledge requisite to the suc- 
cessful prosecution of the work of interpretation. This 
larger Semitic sphere is similarly segregated and cannot be 
understood or appreciated from the outside. Its interpreter, 
too, must learn to interpret by interpreting. Under these 
circumstances the practical method of procedure for one who 
wishes to gain the best possible understanding of the Old 
Testament is to start work at once upon fhe Old Testament 
itself. Through the gate thus opened let him pass on into 
other fields of Semitic thought and come back from these into 

83 



84 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

the Old Testament again, better able to understand and 
appreciate it by reason of the breadth of vision and standards 
for comparison obtained in the larger Semitic world. 

The first step on the way to mastery of the contents of the 
Old Testament is to take up the study of the Hebrew language, 
in which all of it, except certain chapters in Ezra and Daniel, 
is written. This work of translation will inevitably involve 
comparison with the earlier translations into Greek, Syriac, 
Latin, etc., and it will drive the zealous translator farther 
afield into the cognate languages, Assyrian, Arabic, Ethiopic, 
etc., that he may discover there the meanings of words and 
phrases upon which the Old Testament itself throws insuffi- 
cient light. 

But, when all legitimate aids to translation have been 
exhausted, there will remain many passages which still defy 
interpretation or translation. Many of these will raise the 
question of the validity of the textual tradition, and the 
translator will find himself forced to enter upon the science of 
textual criticism. He must endeavor to restore the original 
text by elimination of its errors before he caruwith satisfaction 
undertake the task of translation. 

When the work of textual criticism and translation has 
been completed, the task of literary criticism remains. The 
function of this discipline is to enable us to evaluate aright 
the document that lies before us. It enables us to place it in 
its proper literary category, to determine whether it is the 
work of one or of many hands, to fix its approximate date, to 
discover its historical and social background, and to learn its 
author's purpose and point of view. 

With these facts in our possession we are ready to under- 
take detailed interpretation of the document. We are able 
to put ourselves in the author's place and see the people to 
whom he addressed his message and the occasion which called 
it forth. His words take on new meaning, and his message 
becomes vital. 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 85 

We pass from this consideration of documents as such to 
the more comprehensive science of history. On the basis 
of the documents properly analyzed, classified, dated, and 
interpreted we proceed to reconstruct the historical experience 
of Israel. We trace the course of her economic, social, and 
political development. We relate her development to that 
of the oriental world in general. In the same way the religious 
development is traced from its earliest and most primitive 
stage, as merely one of the minor Semitic religions, to its 
highest goal as one of the great religions of the world. 

Finally, the question of value remains. In the effort 
to determine this we consult the judgment of past ages, 
which has expressed itself in the process of canonization and 
in the history of interpretation. We are then ready to con- 
sider the worth of the Old Testament and its religion for 
today. This leads to an investigation regarding its con- 
tribution to the various co-ordinate subjects which go to 
make up a theological curriculum, e.g., the study of the New 
Testament, church history, systematic theology, religious 
education, and the like. Especially important is the question 
as to the degree to which the Old Testament contributes 
toward the upbuilding of character through the implantation 
of high ideals and the inspiration that comes from the con- 
sideration of the lives of its great men. 

In the following pages the preceding program will guide 
our thought and enable us to bear in mind constantly the 
relation of the special topic under consideration to the larger 
subject as a whole. 

I. THE PROCESS OF TRANSLATION 
THE CHARACTER OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE 

The first obstacle confronting him who desires to appreci- 
ate the Old Testament to the full is the necessity of learning 
the languag^es in which it is written. These are Hebrew and 
Aramaic. The proportion of the Aramaic text to the whole is 



86 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

very small, the former being limited to Jer. io:ii; Dan. 
2:4b — 7:28; Ezra 4:8 — 6:18; 7:12-26; and two words in 
Gen. 31:47. 

The Hebrew language is, relatively speaking, not difficult 
to learn. Its syntactical structure is simple; its inflectional 
system is not cumbersome; and the vocabulary of the Old 
Testament is quite limited. There are in all about seven 
thousand words in the Old Testament, of which one thousand 
appear twenty-five times or more each. Not only this, 
but these words are formed from roots of which each yields 
many different formations. A knowledge of the root and its 
meaning, together with a familiarity with the significance of 
the various methods of formation, gives control of the mean- 
ing of a large number of words. There are only about three 
hundred possible verbal forms, as compared with those of 
Greek, for example, which has approximately twelve hundred 
such forms. It is safe to say that as much facility in the use 
of Hebrew can be gained in one year as would require three 
years' time in the case of Latin or Greek. 

METHODS OF STUDYING HEBREW 

Grammars and dictionaries. — For the beginner in Hebrew the best 
plan is to use the inductive method, as represented by W. R. Harper's 
Introductory Hebrew Method and Manual, 23d ed. (New York: Scribner 
191 2). This should be accompanied by W. R. Harper's Elements of 
Hebrew, 25th ed. (New York: Scribner, 1912). Those preferring the 
older, deductive methods may choose between A. B. Davidson's Intro- 
ductory Hebrew Grammar, with Progressive Exercises in Reading and 
Writing, 19th ed. revised throughout by J. E. McFadyen (Edinburgh: 
T. & T. Clark, 1914), and C. P. Fagnani's Primer of Hebrew (New York: 
Scribner, 1903). 

For more advanced stages in the study of the language recourse 
must be had to the standard grammars, viz., Wilhelm Gesenius' hebrdische 
Grammatik, vollig umgearbeitet, von E. Kautzsch, 28th ed. (Leipzig: 
Vogel, 1909; 2d EngUsh ed., translated by G. W. CoUins and revised 
by A. E. Cowley [New York: Oxford University Press, 1910]); F. E. 
Konig, Historisch-kritisches Lehrgebaude der hebrdischen Sprache, 3 vols. 
(Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1897); Stade, Lehrbuch der hebrdischen Grammatik 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 87 

(Leipzig: Vogel, 1879); W. R. Harper, Elements of Hebrew Syntax 
(New York: Scribner, 1888); A. B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax (New 
York: Scribner, 1894); S. R. Driver, A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses 
in Hebrew, 3d ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892); Kennett, A Short 
Account of the Hebrew Tenses (Cambridge: University Press, 1901); 
W. H. Green, A Grammar of the Hebrew Language (New York: Wiley & 
Sons, 1889). 

The only dictionaries of Hebrew worthy of consideration are : Francis 
Brown (with the co-operation of S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs), A 
Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix 
Containing the Biblical Aramaic, based on the Lexicon of W. Gesenius, 
as translated by Edward Robinson (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 
1906); Frants Buhl, Wilhelm Gesenius^ hebrdisches und aramdisches 
Handworterbuch iiber das Alte Testament, i6th ed. (Leipzig: Vogel, 191 5) ; 
Siegfried-Stade, Hebrdisches Worterbuch zum Alien Testamente (Leipzig: 
Veit, 1899; Eduard Konig, Hebrdisches und aramdisches Worterbuch zum 
Alien Testament (Leipzig: Dieterich, 1910); Elieser ben Jehuda, Thesau- 
rus totius Hebraitatis et veteris et recentioris (New York: International 
News Co., 1909; not yet complete). 

Biblical Aramaic. — ^Biblical Aramaic may easily be mastered with 
the aid of Marti's Kurzgefasste Grammatik der biblisch-aramdischen 
Sprache, 26. ed. (New York: LemckeundBuechner, 1911). The vocabu- 
lary will be found listed in the foregoing Hebrew and Aramaic dictionaries. 
Hebrew and Aramaic are not two wholly unrelated languages. They 
are rather but two branches or dialects of the Semitic family of languages. 
Consequently, a knowledge of Hebrew greatly facilitates the acqui- 
sition of Aramaic. Much new light has been thrown upon the biblical 
Aramaic by the discovery of a collection of Aramaic papyri at Elephan- 
tine on the Nile in the years 1906-8 a.d. 

Versions. — No translator of the Old Testament can ignore 
the translations already in existence. Starting with the 
many modern versions, he must push back to the ancient 
versions, seeking to improve his own rendering by careful 
comparison at every step. The most important ancient 
version is the Septuagint, which was begun some time in the 
third century B.C. Next comes the Syriac Version, known as 
the Peshitta. Behind these must be placed the more familiar 
Latin rendering, commonly called the Vulgate.^ 

^Information and literature regarding these and other versions will be 
found on pp. 94-100. 



SS GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Supplementary lexicographical and grammatical study. — 

Better translations of the Old Testament than any thus 
far made are now within our reach. Before the oldest known 
translation was made classical Hebrew had become prac- 
tically a dead language. It is safe to say that the scientific 
scholarship of the present day yields a better mastery of that 
language than has been possible at any earlier stage of its 
study. Through the aid of exhaustive concordances we are 
able to compare passage with passage and word with word, and 
thus to determine the precise significance of many a word 
and phrase which, standing alone, would be almost unintel- 
ligible. By the study of a word in all of its various contexts 
we obtain new conceptions of its flexibility and capacity 
to take on more or less widely varying shades of meaning. 
This word-study is further advanced by the contribution 
obtainable from the languages cognate with Hebrew. The 
vocabulary of each one of these contains much that is found 
also in Hebrew. Oftentimes a word that occurs but once or 
twice in Hebrew is found to be of constant occurrence in one 
or more of the cognates, and its meaning is thus easily obtain- 
able. In the light of this comparative language-study 
a much better understanding of the laws of Hebrew syntax 
obtains today than ever before.^ It is often of vital sig- 
nificance that we should know definitely what possibilities 
the nature and structure of a sentence afford to the translator 
and interpreter. For example, in Isa. i : i8, it makes much 
difference whether we render, ''Though your sins be as scarlet, 
they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like 
crimson, they shall be as wool"; or, ''If yoiir sins be like 
scarlet, can they be as white as snow? If they be red 

^The best comparative grammar of the Semitic languages at present 
available is Carl Brockelmann, Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der 
semitischen Sprachen, 2 vols. (New York: Lemcke und Buechner, 1908-13). 
A condensed edition of Vol. I, dealing with phonetics and morphology only, 
is furnished in Brockelmann, Kurzgefasste vergleichende Grammatik der semiti- 
schen Sprachen (New York: Lemcke und Buechner, 1908). 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 89 

like crimson, can they be as wool?" The determination of 
the true meaning here involves two things: a close study of 
the prophet's line of argument here and a thorough knowl- 
edge of Hebrew syntax. 

Much work remains to be done. Our knowledge of 
Hebrew vocabulary and Hebrew syntax, is even yet far 
from exhaustive. The Hebrew dictionary is continually 
being enriched by fresh materials brought in by the cognates. 
Many problems of syntactical structure remain to be solved. 
For example, what are the decisive signs of an interrogative 
sentence which lacks the ordinary interrogative particles ? Is 
the usage of the Hebrew tense-forms yet correctly analyzed ? 
Have we as yet properly treated all classes of clauses intro- 
duced by so-called wdw-conjunctive and "ze^aw-consecutive ? 
The history of Hebrew syntax, and, indeed, of the language as 
a whole, remains to be written. But many preliminary and 
detailed studies must be carried through before it can be 
satisfactorily done. 

Obscure passages. — When the Hebrew lexicographer and 
grammarian shall have said their last word, there will still 
remain many a passage which will defy successful translation — 
and that, too, not because of the ignorance of the translator. 
The fact is that, in many cases, the Hebrew text as it stands 
presents phenomena in direct conflict with the best-known 
facts of Hebrew grammar. This raises at once a suspicion 
as to the correctness of the text as handed down and leads 
the translator to take up the work of textual criticism. 

II. THE TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 
THE AGE or THE EXISTING MANUSCRIPTS 

In any attempt to get at a writer's thought one of the 
first things to be done is to determine whether or not the 
document under consideration is precisely as its author left 
it. If we have before us the actual manuscript as originally 



go GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

prepared, and if the manuscript is clearly written and well 
preserved, the task of the textual critic is reduced to a mini- 
mum. But when, as is the case with the Old Testament 
writings, the original manuscripts lie by thousands of years 
in the past and their contents are available only in copies, 
then the labors and problems of the textual critic rapidly 
multiply. 

Modern editions of the Hebrew Bible all practically repro- 
duce the text as edited by Jacob ben Hayyim in the second 
edition of the Bomberg Bible (1524-25 a.d.). The best 
of these modern Bibles are the following: (i) Bihlia Hebraica 
edited by R. Kittel, 2d ed. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 19 13.) This 
gives a limited conspectus of variant reading from the versions 
and of conjectural emendations at the foot of every page. 

(2) The texts of the individual books edited by S. Baer and 
Franz Delitzsch (Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1869-95). These editions 
offer a revised Massoretic text, collations of various manu- 
scripts, and critical textual notes. The books from Exodus to 
Deuteronomy inclusive were never published in this series. 

(3) The very best editions of the Massoretic text are those by 
David Ginsburg. He first published Four and Twenty Holy 
Books Carefully Edited after the Massorah and after Earliest 
Editions (London: Trinitarian Bible Society, 1894). This 
was put out again in a cheap edition by the Trinitarian Bible 
Society (London, 1906). From this edition were eliminated 
all the variant readings from Massoretic manuscripts which 
were incorporated in the first edition. The same text was 
published again with a far more comprehensive array of 
variant readings (London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 
1908-11). This is the standard edition of the Massoretic 
text as far as it goes; the "Writings," viz.. Psalms, Job, etc., 
remain to be published. 

Texts like the foregoing are constructed upon the basis 
of a careful and exhaustive comparison of all existing Hebrew 
manuscripts and printed editions. No printed edition goes 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 91 

farther back than 1477 ^.d. The oldest of the manuscripts 
now existing, of which there are approximately two thousand, 
go back only as far as the latter part of the ninth century 
A.D., with the exception of one fragment containing the 
Decalogue and Deut. 6:4. This latter fragment belongs 
apparently to the second century a.d. It exhibits a form of 
the Decalogue, presenting many textual variations from the 
recensions of Exod., chap. 20, and Deut., chap. 5, but accords 
on the whole more nearly with the latter than with the former 
passage. The remarkable fact regarding the rest of the 
manuscripts is the slight amount of variation among them. 
What variation there is, is of relatively slight importance, being 
for the most part due to easily recognizable errors and pecu- 
liarities of copyists. They all represent what is known as the 
Massoretic text. This text was established some time in the 
early Christian centuries and succeeded in displacing all other 
texts. There developed different schools of Massoretic 
scribes, representing somewhat different interpretations of 
the textual tradition, but they all sought to perpetuate 
essentially the same text and to guard it from error by most 
scrupulous precautions. 

Literature on the Massoretic text. — For the history of the Massoretic 
text the following will be found invaluable: CD. Ginsburg, Introduction 
to the Massoretico-Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible (London: Trini- 
tarian Bible Society, 1897) ; A. S. Geden, Outlines of Introduction to the 
Hebrew Bible (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1909); F. C. Burkitt, article 
"Text and Versions," Encyclopaedia Biblica, IV (1903); H. L. Strack, 
article ''Text of the Old Testament," Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, 
IV (1902); P. Kahle, Der masoretische Texte des Alten Testaments 
nach der Uberlieferung der babylonischen Juden (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 
1902); P. Kahle, Masoreten des Ostens. Die dltesten punktierten Hand- 
schriften des Alten Testaments und der Targume (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913). 
Collations of many Hebrew manuscripts will be found in Kennicott's 
Vetus Testamentum Hebr. cum variis lectionibus, 2 folio vols. (Oxford, 
1776-80); in De Rossi's Variae lectiones Veteris Testamenti (Parma, 
1784-88) and Scholia critica in Veteris Testamenti libros (1798); and in 
C. D. Ginsburg's edition of the Massoretic text, published in 1908 ff. 



92 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

THE STATE OF THE MASSORETIC TEXT 

The word Massora means 'tradition/' and the Massoretic 
scribes were so called because they aimed at nothing more 
than the reproduction of the text as it had been handed 
down by tradition. Yet the Massoretes themselves recog- 
nized the fact that the traditional text was not in perfect 
condition. This is evidenced by the preservation of two sets 
of readings, the Kethtbh and the Qert. The former repre- 
sents the traditional consonantal text, the authority of which 
was so great that it could not be set aside; the latter is the 
emended text proposed by the Massoretes as a substitute for 
the traditional text. For example, in Isa. 46: ii, the Kethtbh 
has ''man of his counsel"; the Qert has ''man of my counsel." 
In Ezek. 48:16, the Kethtbh has "five" twice, the Qert only 
once; and in Jer. 51:3 the same fs true of the word "bend." 
The Qert is not always an improvement upon the Kethtbh; but 
it shows that the scribes did not regard the traditional text 
as free from errors. 

In addition to the corrections offered by the Qert, the 
Massoretes compiled a list of passages which they recognized 
as now presenting a different text from the original. These 
are eighteen in number and are known as "the emendations of 
the scribes" {tiqqune sophertm). The passages involved are 
Gen. 18:22; Num. 11:15; 12:12; I Sam. 3:13; II Sam. 
16:12; 20:1; I Kings 12:16; II Chron. 10:16; Jer. 2:11; 
Ezek. 8:17; Hos. 4:7; Hab. 1:12; Zech. 2:8 (in Heb. 2: 12); 
Mai. 1:13; Ps. 106:20; Job 7:20; 32:3; and Lam. 3:20. In 
Hab. 1:12, for example, the present text offers, "we shall 
not die " ; the Massoretic testimony is that the original reading 
was, "thou diest not." 

Though the Massoretes formulated a set of rules providing 
for the copying of the Old Testament manuscripts in the 
most painstaking and accurate manner, so that the text they 
established has been perpetuated in the precise form in which 
they left it, very many errors had crept into it before it 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 93 

reached their hands. Most of these were of the kind com- 
monly made by copyists; e.g., confusion of similar letters; 
the wrong grouping of letters into words ;^ the repetition of 
letters, words and phrases (known as dittography) ; the writing 
of letters, words, or phrases only once, where they should have 
been written twice (known as haplography) ; the confusion 
of similar sounds, and the ehsion of words or phrases due 
to their being between two occurrences of the same word, 
so that the eye of the scribe after leaving the manuscript 
where the word first occurred returned to the manuscript 
where the word occurred the second time, thus omitting the 
intervening material. Other errors were due to the damaged 
or illegible condition of the manuscript serving as copy, 
so that the scribe misread it. Some also were due to the delib- 
erate ''corrections" of copyists and editors who considered the 
text in need of improvement of various kinds. Of the many 
errors arising in these and other ways the Massortes have 
indicated but a very small proportion. Much remains to 
be done. 

EMENDATION OF THE TEXT 

There are three main sources of help in the discovery and 
correction of errors, viz.: (i) the examination of duplicate 
passages; (2) the comparison of the various versions; and 
(3) scientifically controlled conjecture. 

Examination of duplicate passages. — The first of these 
methods is, of course, capable of application only in a limited 
area. There are certain sections of the Old Testament which 
are found repeated almost verbatim. For example, Ps. 18= ' 
II Sam. 22; Ps. i4=Ps. 53; Isa. 36-39 = 11 Kings 18:13 — • 
20:19; Isa. 2:2-4 = Mic. 4:1-3; Exod. 20: i-i7 = Deut. 
5:6-21; Ezra 2:i-7o = Neh. 7:6-73; and large sections of 
Samuel and Kings are incorporated in the Books of Chronicles. 

^ It must be borne in mind that in early Hebrew writing words were not 
separated one from another, but that the letters were written continuously 
without any break between words. This affords large room for error in reading. 



94 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Comparison of passage with passage reveals many variations 
between the two, and that which is wrong in the one may be 
right in the other. For example, II Chron. 22:11 retains 
"and put him, " which has been lost from the Hebrew text of 
II Kings 11:2. These duplicate passages are of great value, 
particularly in revealing to us the kinds of errors into which 
Hebrew copyists were liable to fall and the degree of depar- 
ture from the original that was possible on the part of a copy- 
ist or series of copyists. Between Isa. 2:2-4, for example, 
and Mic. 4: 1-3, there are no less than twelve variations. 

Comparison of ancient versions. — The second method for 
the detection and correction of errors is a much more compli- 
cated and indirect one. The great ancient versions of the Old 
Testament were prepared at times all antedating the fixing 
of the Massoretic text and in some cases certainly upon the 
basis of texts belonging to recensions wholly different from 
the Massoretic. Through these versions we are thus enabled 
to get behind the Massoretic text and in very many cases to 
improve upon it. 

a) The Septuagint: The most important of these versions 
is the Septuagint, the Greek translation made for the Jews of 
Alexandria, which became the Bible of both the Jewish and the 
early Christian communities. The oldest portion of this 
Greek version, viz., the translation of the Pentateuch, goes 
back probably to the days of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285- 
246 B.C.). The entire Old Testament was probably put into 
Greek by the close of the first century B.C. 

The task of discovering the Hebrew text that lies behind 
the Septuagint cannot be satisfactorily performed until we 
have determined the text of the Septuagint itself. The his- 
tory of the Septuagint shows that in the early Christian 
centuries it was current in at least three recensions, viz., 
that of Origen, that of Lucian, and that of Hesychius. The 
text of the Septuagint is now extant in a large number of manu- 
scripts, both uncials and cursives. The more important of 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 95 

these codices are the Vatican, the Alexandrine, Sinaiticus, 
Marchalianus, Ephraem Syrus, Sarravianus, Petropolitanus, 
Coishnianus, Taurinensis, and Cryptoferratensis. The task 
of careful and minute comparison and collation of these and 
the many other codices and manuscripts for the purpose of 
grouping them according to their common characteristics, and 
of determining their relations to the three great recensions, 
or the necessity of recognizing still other recensions, is now 
occupying the time and energy of Septuagint scholars. When 
it shall have been completed, we shall have before us the main 
types of Septuagint text accepted in the early Christian 
centuries. It will then be in order to determine whether these 
recensions presuppose one common text from which they 
are all derived, or rather point to the fact that there was prior 
to the third century a.d. no single authoritative translation, 
but two or more, competing versions. 

1. The Old Latin Version. — ^As further aids in fixing the 
text of the Septuagint, we have certain translations made 
from it into other languages. First may be mentioned the 
Old Latin Version. This translation was made from a Greek 
text which antedated all three of the known recensions of the 
Septuagint mentioned above. ''The Old Latin, in its purest 
types, carries us behind all our existing MSS and is sometimes 
nearer to the Septuagint, as the church received that version 
from the Synagogue, than the oldest of our uncial MSS. 
Readings which have disappeared from every known Greek 
MS are here and there preserved by the daughter- version, 
and in such cases the Old Latin becomes a primary authority 
for the Greek text. "^ 

2 . The Syro- Hexaplar Version. — Another daughter- version 
of the Septuagint is the so-called Syro-Hexaplar text. This is 
a literal Syriac translation, by Paul of Telia, in 616-17 a.d., of 
the fifth column of Origen's Hexapla, which contained his recen- 
sion of the Septuagint. The Syro-Hexaplar reproduces the 

^ Swete, Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, 2d ed. (19 14), p. 493. 



96 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

apparatus devised by Origen to indicate the relation of his 
revised Greek text to the current Hebrew text of his day. The 
testimony of the Syro-Hexaplar is therefore of the greatest 
value for the history of the Septuagint text in general and for 
the determination of Origen's recension in particular. 

3. Other daughter-versions. — Other daughter- versions of 
value are (i) the Coptic, in three recensions, the Bohairic, the 
Sahidic, and the Middle Egyptian, which was probably made 
at least as early as the third century a.d.; (2) the Armenian 
version which is a very slavish rendering from the Greek, and 
hence helpful as a witness to the recension of Origen, whose 
text it seems to reflect; (3) the Slavonic Old Testament, which 
on the other hand, in so far as it is a rendering from the 
Septuagint, is generally recognized as reflecting the Lucianic 
recension. 

Literature on the Septuagint and daughter-versions. — The best handy 
edition of the Septuagint is H. B. Swete's Otd Testament in Greek accord- 
ing to the Septuagint, 3 vols. (Cambridge: University Press, 1887-94); 
and a special volume, Introduction to the Otd Testament in Greek (1900), 
2d ed., by R. R. Ottley (Cambridge: University Press, 1914). This 
edition presents the text of the Vatican Codex, with a limited selection 
of collateral readings from the more important parallel codices. The 
standard edition of the Septuagint is now being published by the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, under the editorship of A. E, Brooke and Norman 
McLean. This, too, presents the Vatican text, but it greatly extends 
the citation of collateral readings. Three parts (1906-11), extending 
from Genesis to Deuteronomy, have thus far appeared. The old col- 
lection of readings in Holmes and Parsons, Vetus Testamentum Graecum 
cum variis lectionihus, 4 vols. (1827), is meantime the student's best 
friend. The publications of the Royal Academy of Gottingen, known 
as Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens der Koniglichen Gesell- 
schaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, are valuable contributions to the 
classification of the Septuagint manuscripts. Thus far there have 
appeared: E. Hautsch, Der Lukian-text des Oktateuch (1910); P. Glaue 
und A. Rahlfs, Fragmente einer griechischen Ubersetzung des samaritan- 
ischen Pentateuchs (191 1); E. Grosse-Brauckmann, Z)er Psalter-Text bei 
Theodoret (191 1). O. Procksch's Studien zur Geschichte der Septuaginta 
(Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1910) is an important contribution to the same task. 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 97 

P. de Lagarde outlined a program for the reconstruction of the text of 
LXX in his Ankiindigung einer neuen Ausgabe der griechischen Ubersetzung 
des Alien Testaments (1882) and published the first half of his edition of 
the Lucianic recension in Lihrorum Veteris Testamenti canonicorum pars 
prior (1883). Rahlfs, a pupil of Lagarde, carried on his work in Septua- 
ginta-Studien, I, Books of Kings (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Rup- 
recht, 1904); II, Psalter (1907); III, Lucian's recension of Kings (191 1). 
The vocabulary of LXX is rendered accessible by Hatch and Redpath's 
Concordance to the Septuagint, in three parts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 
1892-1906). The grammar of LXX is treated by H. St, J. Thackeray 
in his Grammar of the Old Testament in Greek (Cambridge: University 
Press, 1909); by R. Helbing, in Grammatik des Septuaginta, Laut- und 
Wort-Lehre (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1907); and by 
Jean Psichari, in Essai sur le Grec de la Septante (1908) . 

The Old Latin text is preserved only in fragments, and these are 
scattered over many manuscripts and editions. The text of the Minor 
Prophets has been edited by W. O. E. Oesterley, and published in the 
Journal of Theological Studies, Vols. V and VI. The same kind of work 
is waiting to be done for the entire Old Testament. 

The Syro-Hexaplar text has been edited and published piecemeal by 
a succession of scholars. The titles will be found in Swete's Introduction 
to the Old Testament in Greek (191 4), p. 113. To the list there given 
we should add J. Gwynn, Remnants of the Later Syriac Versions of the . 
Bible (London: Williams & Norgate, 1909). The editions of the Coptic 
versions will also be found listed by Swete and Ottley on pp. 107 and 
503 L 

h) Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. — Three other 
Greek versions are of exceptional value. The translation by 
Aquila was made about 130 a.d., directly from the Hebrew of 
his time. Its purpose was to provide a version more service- 
able to the Jews than the Septuagint, which was held by the 
Jews to have suffered perversion at the hands of Christian 
apologetes. The virtue of Aquila's rendering, from the point 
of view of textual criticism, is its painfully literal character. 
Thus the Hebrew upon which it was based is easily discerned 
through it. The translation by Theodotion is less valuable. 
It was made with the Hebrew text in view, but was rather a 
free revision of the Septuagint than an independent rendering. 



98 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

It dates from about i8o a.d. The translation by Symmachus 
is a free rendering, made about 200 B.C., with the aid of the 
Septuagint and Theodotion's version, on the basis of the 
Hebrew. The Hebrew text used by all three of these versions 
was one almost identical with the Massoretic text. These 
versions were all incorporated in Origen's Hexapla. The 
fragments that survive will be found chiefly in Field's great 
work, Origenis Hexaplorum quae super sunt, 2 vols. (1875). 
See also F. C. 'EMikiit, Fragments of the Book of Kings ac- 
cording to the Translation of Aquila (London: Clay, 1897); 
and Taylor's Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, 2d ed. (Cam- 
bridge: University Press, 1897). 

c) The Samaritan Pentateuch. — The Samaritan Penta- 
teuch is really not a version, but the edition of the Hebrew 
text used by the Samaritan community. It exhibits about 
six thousand variations from the Massoretic text, most of 
them merely orthographic. Aside from some deliberate 
changes and additions clearly made to subserve the Samaritan 
claims, the text is essentially the same as that of the Mas- 
soretes. This carries the Massoretic text of the Pentateuch 
back at least to the latter part of the fourth century B.C. 
The Samaritan makes but little contribution to the correction 
of the Massoretic text. It will be found in both the Paris and 
the London Polyglots. A critical edition is under way under 
the editorship of Freiherr von Gall; parts 1-3 extending 
through Leviticus have thus far appeared (Giessen: Topel- 
mann, 1914-). 

d) The Tar gums. — The tar gums are Aramaic versions and 
paraphrases of the Hebrew text. The main ones are the 
targum of Onkelos, which covers the Pentateuch, and that of 
Jonathan, which deals with the Prophets. The oldest of 
them dates from no earlier than the fourth or fifth century 
A.D., and in their present form they belong to a much later 
date. The targum of Onkelos is a fairly close rendering 
of the Hebrew; the targum of Jonathan is much more free 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 99 

and in the prophetic books is often very periphrastic. Very 
Kttle textual aid is to be derived from any of the targums. 
The targums are contained in the Paris and London Polyglots, 
and the prophetic portions are given in Lagarde's Prophetae 
Chaldaice (1872). 

e) The Peshittd. — The Syriac version, known as the 
Peshitta, was made directly from the Hebrew, though it 
reflects a good deal of influence from the Septuagint, espe- 
cially in the case of the prophets and Psalms. The name 
Peshitta, which means ''simple," probably contrasts this 
version made from the Hebrew with other Syriac versions, 
like the Syro-Hexaplar, which came through the Greek. 
The Hebrew text used seems to have been practically identical 
with our present Massoretic text. The cases of departure 
from it are relatively very few, and the translation therefore 
is correspondingly weak as an aid to textual criticism. Only 
occasionally does it afford genuine help. The date of the 
translation is unknown. The oldest known Syriac manuscript 
bears the date 464 a.d., and is the oldest dated manuscript of 
either Old or New Testament now known in any language. A 
critical edition of the Syriac text is an urgent need. 

Note. — The version is now accessible in the Paris and London 
Polyglots; in Lee's edition, published by the British and Foreign 
Bible Society (1823), which reproduces the text of the Polyglots; in 
the edition by the American Mission Press at Urumiah (1852), which 
reprinted Lee's edition; in the edition published at Mosul in 1887-92; 
and in M. Altschueler, Die Syrische Bihel-Version Peschita im Urtext 
(Leipzig: Verlag "Lumen," 1908), which has progressed thus far only 
through the Pentateuch, and is a mere reprint of Lee's text. 

The kind of work needed on the Peshitta is illustrated by W. E. 
Barnes's Apparatus Criticus to Chronicles in the Peshitta Version (Cam- 
bridge: University Press, 1897), and by his Peshitta Psalter according to 
the West Syrian Text, with an Apparatus Criticus (Cambridge : University 
Press, 1904), and by G. Diettrich's Ein Apparatus Criticus %ur Pesitto 
zum Propheten Jesaja (Giessen: Topelmann, 1905). Cf. Ch. Heller, 
Untersuchungen iiber die Peschittd zur gesammten hehrdischen Bihel. 
(Berlin: Itzkowski, 191 1). 



lOO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

/) The Vulgate. — The Latin Vulgate was begun by Jerome 
in 390 A.D. and completed in 405 a.d., and by the beginning of 
the seventh century was in common use among the Latin 
churches. This version, too, was made directly from the 
Hebrew; but its Hebrew was essentially the Massoretic text. 
The Vulgate has suffered the penalty of being a popular version 
in that it has departed frequently from its original form. 
Many manuscripts are extant. 

Note. — A good edition of the official text has been produced by 
Michael Hetzenauer, Bihlia Sacra Vulgatae Editionis (Venice, 1906). 
The revision of this, printed at Rome (1914) , is the most practical student's 
edition. The official edition of the Roman Catholic church is that made 
by Pope Sixtus V (1585-90) and revised by authority of Pope Clement 
VIII in 1592, which was issued in a third edition in 1598. The present 
Biblical Commission, appointed by Pope Leo XIII and confirmed by 
Pope Pius X, has been authorized to prepare a new and revised edition 
of this Clementine text. 

Conjectural emendations. — When everything possible has 
been done in the way of the comparison of passage with passage 
and version with version, there will still remain many a 
passage which defies successful translation or interpretation 
by reason of its having become corrupted in transmission at 
a very early stage. It is beyond question that in many cases 
the text was already corrupt when the translators of LXX 
knew it. Under these circumstances the only recourse for 
the textual student is to scientific conjecture. Emphasis 
should be laid upon ''scientific." The kind of conjecture 
required is that controlled by full knowledge of the factors 
entering into the textual situation and by sound judgment. 
This involves familiarity with the kinds of errors commonly 
made by copyists; knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet in all 
of its changing forms, rendering it possible to trace con- 
fusion of similar letters; a thorough knowledge of Hebrew 
grammar and lexicography; a tireless industry, which will 
not shrink from a thoroughgoing comparison of all the render- 
ings of the versions and of the textual readings they pre- 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL loi 

suppose; and a clear understanding of the course of thought in 
the passage involved, that the reading proposed may har- 
monize with the context. This conjectural procedure can 
never yield certainty, but it will produce varying degrees of 
probability, according to the difficulty of the problem and the 
learning and judgment of the critic. In some cases the 
only choice for the scientific translator is between the adoption 
of such conjectural readings and a frank confession that the 
passage in question is hopelessly corrupt and unintelligible. 
A satisfactory translation of the Old Testament upon the 
basis of a critically restored text must wait until much pre- 
liminary investigation has been done by the textual critic. 

Additional literature on textual criticism. — In addition to works 
already mentioned, we must call attention to the following: F. C. Burkitt, 
article "Text and Versions," Encyclopaedia Bihlica (1903) ; H. L. Strack, 
article "Text of the Old Testament," Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible 
(1902); G. B. Gray, article "Text, Versions, and Languages of the Old 
Testament," Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (in i vol., 1909); F. Buhl, 
Canon and Text of the Old Testament (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1892); 
T. H. Weir, A Short History of the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament 
(London: Williams & Norgate, 1899) ; S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew 
Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, with an Introduction on 
Hebrew Palaeography and the Ancient Versions, 2d ed. (Oxford: Claren- 
don Press, 1913); Bleek-Wellhausen, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 
4th ed. (Berlin: Reimer, 1878), pp. 563-643; C. Steuernagel, Lehrbuch 
der Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Tubingen: Mohr, 1912), pp. 19-85; 
C. H. Cornill, Das Buch des Propheten Ezechiel (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 
1886); A. Geiger, Urschrift und Uebersetzungen der Bibel (1857). 

It is, of course, clear that the task of the thoroughgoing 
textual critic is so complex and laborious that only a very few 
students have the requisite tools for it or can give the time 
necessary to secure the proper equipment for it. The majority 
must be content with but a relatively slight degree of tech- 
nique. With a working knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and 
Latin a very, clear conception of the nature of the work to be 
done can be attained and considerable progress achieved in its 
actual accomplishment. As a beginning no better step can 



102 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

be taken than that of comparing a large number of parallel 
passages in the Hebrew Old Testament and registering the 
variations there found and the nature of the error involved. 
Then to get well on the way the student should take up 
Driver's Notes on the Text of the Books of Samuel (19 13) and 
work through it thoroughly. This will give familiarity with 
the methods of criticism and the sources of information. After 
that the textual criticism of any book, to the extent that the 
student's linguistic and technical equipment makes possible, 
may be entered upon. 

THE OMISSION OF HEBREW FROM THE PRESCRIBED COURSE 
FOR THE DEGREE OF D.B. 

All the work thus far outlined involves a willingness on 
the part of the student to undertake a course of hard study in 
at least Hebrew and Greek. From this labor many students 
are precluded either by mental ineptitude for this kind of 
study or by a desire to turn their energies in other directions. 
Indeed, on December 21, 1898, the Divinity Faculty of the 
University of Chicago, upon the initiation of the late President 
Harper, Head of the Department of Old Testament Language 
and Literature, voted to discontinue the requirement of 
Hebrew of its candidates for the degree of D.B., placing it 
on the list of electives. For the previously required courses 
in Hebrew, there were substituted certain courses in the inter- 
pretation of the English Old Testament, which called for an 
equal, if not greater, amount of work. It is scarcely necessary 
to say that the students in an overwhelming proportion 
have chosen the English courses and passed by the Hebrew 
electives. The poHcy has since commended itself to many 
of the leading theological schools of the United States 
in which it has been adopted, e.g., the Yale School of 
Religion, the General Theological Seminary. (Episcopal, 
New York), the Rochester Theological Seminary, the Newton 
Theological Institution, the OberHn Theological Seminary. 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 103 

the Garrett Biblical Institute, the Crozer Theological Semi- 
nary, and the Chicago Theological Seminary. 

Students who forego the delight of studying Hebrew will, 
of course, always be dependent upon the scholarship of others 
in every question involving the translation of a Hebrew 
passage, the meaning of a Hebrew word, the linguistic testi- 
mony as to the date of a document, the poetic forms and 
characteristics of Hebrew rhythmical passages, or the validity 
of the Hebrew text. One consolation is that such a student 
can never fully know how much he has lost. Furthermore, 
if the student goes out from the divinity school only to drop 
his study of Hebrew at that point, it is fairly certain that as 
a rule it is better for him to have spent his time in the class- 
room and library in securing an intelligent and comprehensive 
view of the Old Testament literature. It is better- for him to 
know how this literature arose and to appreciate its true sig- 
nificance through the use of the English version than to have 
gained simply a smattering of Hebrew of which he expects 
to make no further use, while he has learned very little of 
the real meaning of the Old Testament as a whole because 
his time has been spent in a futile study of the language. 

HOW BEST TO STUDY THE OLD TESTAMENT IN ENGLISH 

The student who knows no Hebrew should provide him- 
self with several good translations and be very careful in 
choosing his commentaries. By reference to the pages of 
standard biblical journals he should discover for himself 
those commentaries whose translations and grammatical inter- 
pretations are most trustworthy, and should avoid unscholarly 
works as he would the plague. 

The student of the English text may console himself, in 
part, with the reflection that the historico-critical interpreta- 
tion of the Old Testament places relatively little stress upon 
minute verbal exegesis. That has its place, to be sure; but 
the main matter is the recovery of the great drift of Hebrew 



I04 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

religious thought and the full realization of the conditions 
under which it was wrought out. It is a far more vital matter 
to know the situation that confronted Amos, for example, 
and the main outlines of his teaching and attitude toward 
the problems of his day, than it is to know precisely what was 
the meaning of Amos 5:25 or of any other isolated passage. 
Into most of the tasks outlined in the following pages the stu- 
dent without a knowledge of Hebrew can enter enthusiasti- 
cally, with the confidence that he can obtain most satisfactory 
results despite his handicap at the start. 



III. LITERARY CRITICISM AND THE INTERPRETATION 
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 

THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM 

The function of criticism is appreciation, not depreciation, 
as is too commonly supposed. It seeks to present each object 
that it studies in its true light. It seeks to know it precisely 
as it is. It divests it of all error and prejudice that do but 
befog vision and allows it to stand out in the clear light of 
truth. Only thus is it possible for true appreciation to be 
enkindled in the soul. The thing studied must be looked at 
from every side, and the conditions amid which it was pro- 
duced must be clearly understood, if its value is to be rightly 
estimated and if the producer's ability is to be properly 
evaluated. The capacity for critical appreciation needs 
careful cultivation. The ability to see a thing just as it is 
seems within easy reach of all; but as a matter of fact it is 
possessed by relatively few. This is particularly true in 
the field of literary appreciation; and when the literature in 
question is biblical, obstructions in the field of vision rapidly 
multiply. We come to the study of our sacred literature 
with our minds already closed to much that it has to say 
to us, because of the theories and prejudices that we 
entertain regarding this whole group of literature in general 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 105 

and the special section under consideration in particular. 
The truly critical interpreter comes to the literature to be 
interpreted with his mind free from all restraining and obstruc- 
tive influences. He seeks only to hear what the literature 
itself has to say. He insists that it be allowed to tell its own 
tale and to make its own impressions. Intelligent apprecia- 
tion springs only from full and exact knowledge of things as 
they are. 

Still another difficulty that all too easily besets the inter- 
preter is the more or less unconscious feeling that the Old 
Testament, being a part of the Bible, must always be of value 
primarily for practical purposes of edification. Its purpose 
must be that of stimulating the devotional life. Hence, if a 
passage, when read in its natural and normal meaning, does 
not seem to yield material for spiritual enrichment, it must be 
re-examined and probed until some hidden, richer significance 
is discovered. As a matter of fact, however, there are whole 
pages of the Old Testament that can in and of themselves by no 
legitimate methods be made to minister to the soul's welfare 
and evidently were not written for that purpose. Take, for 
example, the genealogical lists that occur so often. The Old 
Testament is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for cor- 
rection, for instruction which is in righteousness"; but it 
does not yield its richest treasures to those who seek to force 
it to say what they expect from it. A facile, superficial, 
homiletical exposition of the Old Testament misses most of 
its highest values. Before using it for practical purposes we 
must make the honest effort to let it tell its message in its 
own way. 

THE CRITERIA OF POETRY 

The critic, therefore, is in part a searcher for information. 
He approaches each piece of literature with a series of ques- 
tions. One of his first concerns is the determination of the 
class and character of this literature with which he is dealing. 



io6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Is it poetry or is it prose ? This question is not so simple as 
it seems at first thought. Hebrew manuscripts do not 
distinguish between the two by writing poetry in a special 
poetic form. A casual look at a page of Hebrew as printed 
even in our older Bibles does not at once reveal the classi- 
fication to which it belongs, for there is no distinction in the 
arrangement of poetic and prose lines. It becomes necessary, 
therefore, for the student to learn to recognize poetry by 
such characteristics of form and content as are independent 
of copyist and printer. This recognition of poetry as such is, 
of course, of the greatest importance for interpretation. No 
one dreams of taking poetic statements in the same literal 
and matter-of-fact way in which prose utterances are inter- 
preted. It is of the essence of poetry to be imaginative, figur- 
ative, and idealistic. We do violence to the spirit of poetry 
when we treat it as a mere sober statement of fact. To do 'so 
is utterly to misunderstand the point of view and purpose of 
the writer. For example, we should hardly treat as a literal 
statement of fact these poetic lines : 

The mountains skipped like rams, 
The little hills like lambs [Ps. 114:4]. 

Yet it is by no means always easy to discriminate between 
poetry and prose in the Old Testament. At the present 
time there is not unanimity of judgment in this matter. Of 
course, such books as the Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, 
and Job commend themselves to all as poetical. There is, too, 
an increasing willingness to recognize much of the prophetic 
writings as poetry. But some enthusiastic students of Hebrew 
poetry are not content unless we declare such books as Genesis 
and Samuel to be poetic also. The careful study of the 
nature and form of Hebrew poetry is, consequently, a duty 
incumbent upon every interpreter of the Old Testament. 
Even the prophetic books take on a different atmosphere 
when we clearly understand the significance of the fact that 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 107 

they are poetic in form and spirit. How much greater a 
change in our attitude would result were we to conclude that 
the historical books too are poetry and not prose ! 

Parallelism. — The outstanding formal characteristic of 
most Hebrew poetry is its parallelismus memhrorum. This 
parallelism is represented in such verses as : 

In Judah is God known: 

His name is great in Israel. 

In Salem also is his tabernacle, 

And his dwelling-place in Zion [Ps. 76: i, 2] 

The statement of the first line is repeated in slightly different 
form in the second, and that of the third in the fourth. This 
is the simplest and most easily recognizable form, and is 
usually designated ''synonymous parallelism." 

Another closely similar variety is called ''antithetic." 
It is represented largely in the Book of Proverbs, e.g.: 

The full soul loatheth a honeycomb ; 

But to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet [27:7]. 

A third kind is known as "synthetic," since two or more 
parallel clauses are necessary to the complete thought. For 
example : 

Yea, though I walk through the valley of deep darkness, 
I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; 
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. 

The fact of such departure as this from the norm of strict 
parallelism is one of the elements that enters into the task of 
deciding between poetry and prose. If the parallel form is 
not clearly marked, as it is in the synonymous and antithetic 
varieties, and if in addition the poetic quality of the literature 
is not very high, it is not an altogether simple matter to 
classify it correctly. 

Meter. — The problem of meter in Hebrew poetry is one 
still far from solution. How are the parallel lines organized ? 
Can they be measured by poetic feet? Are the units of 



io8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

which the lines are composed of equal length? How is 
length determined — by the number of syllables or by the 
number of words ? Does the nature of the syllable play any 
part in the calculation, viz., whether it is long or short? Is 
the same meter requisite throughout a poem or may there 
he more or less variation? These and other related ques- 
tions still call for decisive answer. Uncertainty on these 
matters also tends to increase the difficulty of distinguishing 
poetry from prose. The one thing in this sphere that seems 
fairly certain is that the basis of the poetic line is accentual. 
We count the number of word-accents as the measure of the 
line. In general, also, the length of the lines thus deter- 
mined is the same throughout a given poem. But the 
usage controlling the number and nature of the unaccented 
syllables that accompany each accented syllable has not yet 
been discovered. 

Literature on Hebrew poetry. — General treatments of the character- 
istics of Hebrew poetry are furnished by the following works: A. R. 
Gordon, The Poets of the Old Testament (New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 
1912); N. Schmidt, The Messages of the Poets (New York: Scribner, 
1911), pp. 1-72; B. Duhm, article "Poetical Literature," Encyclopaedia 
Biblica, III (1902); K. Budde, article "Poetry," Hastings' Dictionary of 
the Bible, IV (1902) ; Isaac Taylor, The Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry (1861) ; 
R. Lowth, De sacra poesi Hebraeorum (181 5); J. G. Herder, Vom Geist 
der hebraischen Poesie (1787); E. Konig, Stilistik, Rhetorik und Poetik 
(Leipzig: Dieterich, 1900); C. A. Briggs, General Introduction to the 
Stttdy of Holy Scripture (New York: Scribner, 1899), pp. 355-426; G. A. 
Smith, The Early Poetry of Israel in Its Physical and Social Origins 
(London: Oxford University Press, 19 12). 

The more important schemes for the organization of Hebrew meter 
are presented and discussed in the following: W. H. Cobb, A Criticism 
of Systems of Hebrew Meter (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905); J. Ley, 
Grundziige des Rhythmus u.s.w. in der hebraischen Poesie (1875); 
G. Bickell, Carmina Veteris Testamenti metrice (1882); J. Ley, Leitfaden 
der Metrik der hebraischen Poesie (1887); H. Grimme, Grundziige der 
hebraischen Akzent- und Vocallehre (1896) ; J. DoUer, Rhythmus, Metrik und 
Strophik in der biblisch-hebraischen Poesie (Paderborn: Schoningh, 1899) ; 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 109 

E. Sievers, Metrische Studien, I: Studien zur hehrdischen Metrik (Leipzig: 
Teubner, 1901); II: Die hebr. Genesis {igo4.-s); HI- Samuel metrisch 
herausgegehen (1907); J. W. Rothstein, GrundzUge des hehrdischen 
Rhythmus und seiner Formenbildung (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909); C. L. 
Souvay, Essai sur la metrique des Psaumes (St. Louis: Seminaire Kenrick, 
1911). 

On the organization of strophes in Hebrew poetry, cf., in addition, 
D. H. Miiller, Die Propheten in ihrer urspriinglichen Form (Vienna: 
Holder, 1896); J. K, Zenner, Die Chorgesdnge im Buche der Psalmen 
(Freiburg im B. : Herder, 1896) ; D. H. Miiller, Strophenhau und Respon- 
sion (Vienna: Holder, 1898); C. A. Briggs, A Critical and Exegetical 
Commentary on the Book of Psalms, I (New York: Scribner, 1906), 
pp. xxxiv-xlviii. 

VARIETIES OF PROSE 

If the literary product under consideration turns out to be 
prose, the critical student seeks farther to know to what class 
of writings it belongs. Is it historical narrative, concerned 
with no other end than that of recording events exactly as they 
occurred? Is it sermonic or didactic in character, setting 
consciously before itself the end of instruction and edification ? 
If the latter, to what extent is its treatment of history con- 
trolled by its aim ? If ostensibly historical, is it really so ? 
Careful discrimination must be made between the mythical or 
legendary and the historical. Allowance must be made also 
for the possible presence of parabolic or allegorical matter 
under the guise of historical narrative. The failure to 
recognize this has played havoc with the interpretation of 
such literature as the Book of Jonah. Again, are the visions 
in Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah, Zechariah the records of veritable 
prophetic experiences, or are they but a literary or homiletic 
dress chosen for the more effective presentation of the pro- 
phetic thought ? The search for answers to these and other 
such questions yields a knowledge of the literary methods 
and characteristics of the Hebrews which is of the greatest 
value to the interpreter. 



no GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
COMPOSITE AUTHORSHIP 

Another matter for investigation by the hterary student 
is the problem whether or not the writing before him is a 
unit. As a matter of fact, most of the Old Testament books 
are today regarded as of composite origin. The analysis of the 
Hexateuch into several documents and the partition of the 
Book of Isaiah among several writers are but illustrations of 
the situation as a whole. The tests of the unity of a biblical 
book are in general precisely the same as those applied to any 
other book. Are the language vand style throughout the 
work one and the same, or are there marked variations ? 
Judgments regarding style will always differ somewhat. 
De gustibus nil disputandum. But certain objective, out- 
standing differences can be recognized by all. Browning and 
Longfellow, for instance, could hardly be confused. Stylistic 
differences of pronounced character are thus generally recog- 
nizable, and they, at least, reinforce other considerations 
indicating diversity of authorship. Similarly, the language 
of Chaucer and that of Tennyson could not possibly be 
regarded as belonging to the same man or the same age. In 
the same way the language of the Old Testament represents 
approximately the history of a thousand years. Unfor- 
tunately the history of the Hebrew language is not as well 
known as the history of Enghsh. Furthermore, the language 
of the Old Testament has undergone considerable revision 
from time to time, being kept up to date by reason of the 
fact that the books were so widely read and in such steady 
demand. Yet there are certain clearly marked differences 
between early and late Hebrew, and the presence of both in 
one book gives rise to legitimate suspicion regarding its unity. 

Another criterion of unity is harmony throughout the 
writing. Are the statements it makes and the presuppositions 
it reflects mutually compatible ? Are the likes and dislikes in 
general the same throughout? Are the interests and ideals 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL iii 

sufficiently alike to belong to one mind, or do they presuppose 
more than one ? Is the theological standpoint the same from 
beginning to end ? Or are there differences of religious and 
theological character too great to be reconciled on the 
hypothesis of unity? For example, could David have held 
the two conceptions of God reflected in I Sam. 26: 17-20 and 
Ps. 139:7-12? The same inspection must be made of the 
historical background. Is it the same throughout? The 
historical situation is revealed sometimes indirectly and inci- 
dentally even when we are not directly informed as to the 
period to which a writing belongs. If a discussion of some 
religious doctrine were, for example, to use an illustration 
based upon wireless telegraphy, later ages would be enabled 
to determine the terminus a quo, at least, of the writing by 
that incidental allusion, even if no other information were 
available. 

THE AUTHOR ' 

The next question asked of a book by the interpreter is, 
Who wrote it or its several constituent elements? The 
mere possession of an author's name is of little value in itself. 
We seek rather to know the man as he was. To what stratum 
of the social whole did he belong ? It is of great help, for 
example, in the understanding and appreciation of the 
sympathy felt by Amos and Micah for the poor and the 
oppressed to know that they both came from the peasant 
class and knew whereof they spoke by personal experience. 
What was the inheritance of the author in the way of family 
traditions and prejudices ? What kind of training or educa- 
tion had been his? What were his personal history and 
experience ? We come to the prophecy of Hosea, for example, 
with somewhat different attitudes, according as we regard 
him as a young man who had bestowed all the wealth of his 
love upon a maiden who, after she had become his wife, devel- 
oped lustful proclivities and finally deserted him, or as a 



112 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

man who believed himself called of God to marry an out-and- 
out harlot that he might thereby furnish a striking object- 
lesson to Israel. The fuller and the more exact our knowledge 
of the author, his antecedents, and his temperament the 
better qualified are we to appreciate his point of view and 
his utterance. 

THE DATE 

It is of primary importance to fix the date of a writing as 
nearly as possible. The value of this information lies in the 
fact that it enables us to know the historical situation out of 
which the writing came and to which it was addressed. 
This knowledge is necessary to a, full understanding of any 
writing. To know, in the fullest measure possible, the 
environment of the writer and the situation of those to whom 
he wrote throws a flood of light upon the meaning and sig- 
nificance of his words. Words uttered in the ninth century 
would not convey the same significance as the same words 
coming from the third century B.C. Prophecies from the 
days of Jeroboam II cannot be understood aright if read with 
the supposition that they come from the Exile. The cir- 
cumstances of the age are woven into the very texture of the 
thought, and they must be known if that thought is to be 
made wholly intelligible. 

The date of a piece of literature is determined in various 
ways. The superscription attached to it not infrequently 
states a date. But the superscriptions were evidently added 
by later editors, in many cases at least, for they frequently 
do not accord with the contents of the document to which 
they are prefixed. Hence, in every case, whether there is 
superscription or not, the final test of the date of a document 
is the document itself. If it alludes to known historical 
events and circumstances, these, of course, fix the date at 
least within limits. For example, since the 137th Psalm 
opens with — 

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, 
Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion, 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 113 

it is perfectly clear that the period of the Exile lay behind the 
writer. The last verses of the same psalm, on the same prin- 
ciple, show that the city of Babylon had not yet, when the poet 
wrote, been punished as he thought it deserved, viz., totally 
destroyed. When Isa. 44:26-28 and 45: iff. speak of the 
wasted state of Jerusalem and of the triumphs of Cyrus, it is 
clear that the writer of these chapters lived during the latter 
part of the Exile, after Cyrus had begun his glorious career 
and before Babylon had fallen or a return from exile had taken 
place. 

Specific historical allusions are not always, however, avail- 
able. Then recourse must be had to other kinds of testimony. 
The vocabulary and syntax of the language give some aid 
in the determination of date. The appearance of certain 
words and of certain idioms can be dated with approximate 
definiteness. Their presence or absence, from a document is 
therefore a slight indication of the time when it originated. 
Persian or Greek words, for example, at once betray the age 
to which a writing belongs. But, on the whole, less aid is 
derived from the linguistic argument than from any other 
(cf. p. no). 

Much help in dating a book or document is often derived 
from a study of the social, political, and ecclesiastical insti- 
tutions, customs, and ideas it reflects. If the writer refers to 
the monarchy, for example, as an existing institution, he 
reveals the general period to which he belongs. In like 
manner, if he laments the lack of temple services, we at 
once place him in the Exile. If the whole background of 
his thought is commercial or urban, rather than rural and 
agricultural, we put him in the later sections of the history. 
This kind of testimony is furnished particularly by the 
religious and theological thought of the writer. For instance, 
when II Sam. 24:1 tells us that Yahweh^ moved David 

^ This is apparently the way in which the Hebrews pronounced the name 
of their God, The pronunciation "Jehovah" is a mongrel form arising some- 
where in the fourteenth century after Christ. It is due to a mixture of the 



114 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

against Israel, saying, ''Go number Israel and Judah," and 
I Chron. 21:1, in describing the same situation, informs us 
that ''Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to 
number Israel," we know that a long history of religious and 
theological development lies between the two interpretations. 
The difference in standpoint illustrated by these two judg- 
ments runs through the entire thought of the two stages of 
religion represented by these two passages. Writings whose 
theological and religious standpoint approximate that of the 
passage in I Samuel belong near the beginning of the process 
of growth, those that approximate the standpoint of the 
Chronicler belong near the end of the Hebrew period. And 
the steps along the way from the first to the second are fairly 
well recognizable, so that the religion and theology of a 
writer do much to place him chronologically for us. 

THE author's purpose 

Another contribution to the understanding of a document 
is made when we discover its author's purpose in writing it. 
If we read the Books of Chronicles, for example, as a sober 
record of history, made by one whose chief aim was to find 
out what the facts were and what the causes were that con- 
trolled the course of events, we are confronted by vexatious 
questions. How can we account for the many discrepancies 
between Chronicles and Kings (cf., e.g., II Chron. 14:5; 
17:6; and I Kings 15:14; 22:43), the latter being much the 
older record? Why does the Chronicler, if a historian 

vowels of the Hebrew word for "Lord" with the consonants of the name 
"Yahweh," The later Hebrews regarded the latter as too sacred to be pro- 
nounced, and therefore substituted the word "Lord" whenever "Yahweh" 
occurred. In their manuscripts they wrote the consonants of the word Yahweh, 
leaving out the vowels and putting in their place the vowels of the Hebrew word 
for "Lord," thus reminding themselves not to pronounce "Yahweh," but the 
word for "Lord." Christian interpreters, in the 14th or 15th century, not 
knowing the significance of this method of spelling, misunderstood it and pro- 
nounced the combination as ''Jehovah" — an error that has persisted until the 
present. 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 115 

primarily, pass over so many facts without mention of them 
(e.g., the story of Bathsheba, the discords in David's family, 
and the Elijah and Elisha stories) ? How does it happen that 
the David of the Chronicler is a saint, chiefly interested in 
preparations for the proposed temple and its ritual, while the 
David of Samuel and Kings is a man of flesh and blood, 
busied in war and intrigue and the practical affairs of a 
monarch's daily life ? When we discover that the Chronicler 
was not at all concerned with history as such, but was solicitous 
to vindicate the legitimacy and glory. of God, the temple, 
the priesthood, and the ritual as he knew them and loved 
them, many of these questions are at once answered. He 
was interested in the facts of history only to the extent to 
which he could make them subserve his purpose. He there- 
fore selected such materials as he could use to teach the lessons 
he desired to inculcate and passed by the rest. He also inter- 
preted past history from the standpoint of his own time and 
from the viewpoint of his great purpose, and thus presented 
conclusions widely at variance with those of an earlier inter- 
preter writing from a different standpoint and with a differ- 
ent purpose. If we take prophetic literature, the importance 
of knowing the prophetic purpose is equally great. If we 
decide that the prophets were merely human automatons 
who spoke and moved as the Spirit of God directed them, there 
will be practically no limits, except such as inhere in our con- 
ception of God, to our conceptions of what they might do and 
say. If, however, we regard the prophets as men who were 
profoundly moved by the events and conditions of their times 
and sought to bring to bear upon their contemporaries such 
considerations as would turn them from sin unto righteousness, 
our whole interpretation of the prophetic activity will be con- 
trolled by our conception of the prophets' purpose. For 
example, if we think of the prophet Isaiah as seeking to stimu- 
late Israel's faith in God at the time of the Syro-Ephraimite 
invasion of Judah, we shall seek to show how the Immanuel 



ii6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

prophecy (Isa., chap. 7) contributed to the achievement of 
his purpose, and we shall have great difficulty in understanding 
how it could do so, if it was primarily a prediction of the 
coming of Jesus Christ, as older interpreters used to say. 
Again, if we regard the writer of Isa., chaps. 40-55, as engaged 
in the great purpose of inspiring and strengthening discour- 
aged Israel in captivity that it might be ready to seize the 
opportunity for return when it should present itself, we shall 
read those chapters with a new appreciation. We shall at 
once understand why he enlarges upon the power and the love 
of Yahweh and the futility and absurdity of idolatry. We 
shall also see why so much attention is given by him to the 
problem of suffering; he must explain satisfactorily the 
misfortunes of the past if he would inspire confidence in 
Yahweh for the future. 

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LITERATURE 

The necessity of still another way of approach to the 
Hebrew literature is now beginning to be recognized. It 
was long thought that the Old Testament literature was 
absolutely unique, that it was quite without parallel in any 
way. But within recent years certain facts have come to 
light which challenge that point of view. The Babylonians 
had a creation story and a deluge story which present such 
striking points of similarity to the biblical stories that we 
are forced to raise the question of the use of the Babylonian 
stories by the biblical writers. The Code of Hammurabi, 
king of Babylon, antedated the Mosaic legislation by hundreds 
of years. Some of the Mosaic laws are much like those of 
Hammurabi. Was Hebrew law, therefore, dependent to some 
extent upon older Babylonian law? The Egyptian tale of 
two brothers offers elements that vividly recall the story 
of Joseph and Potiphar's wife. Prophetic and messianic 
literature has been found in Egypt at dates far preceding 
the earHest appearance of prophecy or messianism in Israel. 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 117 

Was this old Egyptian prophetic material familiar to the 
Hebrew prophets, and did it furnish models for the expression 
of Hebrew prophetic thought? In the recently discovered 
Aramaic papyri from Elephantine there was found an Aramaic 
version of the story of Ahikar. This Aramaic version arose 
about 500 B.C. It is a legend of a wise man who served as 
chief adviser of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. In its Aramaic 
form it spread throughout the hither Orient, and was finally 
translated into Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, Armenian, Greek, 
and Slavonic. It is indisputable evidence of the freedom 
with which literary influences passed from one part of the 
oriental world to another, and it lends new impetus to the 
study of oriental literature as a whole from the comparative 
point of view. To what extent, we are compelled to ask, were 
the Hebrews dependent upon the literary life of the Orient as 
a whole for the form and content of their own literature ? 
The Ahikar story contains a large amount of proverbial 
material which is no whit inferior in either form or content 
to much that is in the Book of Proverbs. We can no longer, 
therefore, view the Old Testament entirely as a thing apart. 
We must reckon with the probability of interrelations between 
it and surrounding literatures and be prepared for the possi- 
bility of surprising discoveries in this field. 

THE ART OF INTERPRETATION 

In view of the fact that everything which has preceded 
is preparation for the work of interpretation, it will be recog- 
nized at once that the office of interpreter is no sine- 
cure. His work calls for the most careful preparation and 
the most complete self-surrender. We must divest ourselves 
of every preconceived opinion or prejudice that may stand as 
an obstruction between us and our author. We cannot dic- 
tate to him what he shall say, but must be ready to receive 
what he has said. We try to put ourselves in his place, in 
the ways pointed out in the foregoing pages, to look through 



ii8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

his eyes, to hear with his ears, and to feel as he felt. We 
may add nothing to his message, nor may we subtract any- 
thing from it. Our obligation as interpreters is to be abso- 
lutely loyal to our sources and transparently honest in our 
endeavor to understand their full significance. As inter- 
preters we have no concern with the truth or the error of the 
views presented by our sources. We may agree or disagree 
with the doctrines of our author, but it is our first and only 
duty, in our capacity as interpreters, to understand his views 
completely and to report them accurately. 

When the student of the Old Testament has finally 
equipped himself thoroughly for the work of interpretation, so 
that he is able to read the mind of his author clearly, he is 
still confronted by the problem of method in his presentation 
of his results to the public in general. He cannot expect the 
average person to go through the long and painful process by 
which he himself has arrived at his understanding of the Old 
Testament. He must devise some easier way for the great 
majority of men. They may, perhaps, reasonably be expected 
to read their Old Testament in more than one English trans- 
lation, a procedure which will be found helpful in so far as 
it presents familiar ideas in a new dress and so arouses new 
thoughts about them. In so far as the translations read 
differ from one another, they will contribute also to bring 
about freedom from bondage to any one translation and a 
recognition of the fact that no translation can quite take the 
place of the original language. Further, the main features of 
the historical and social situation can be set before the popular 
mind briefly and vividly and the right background thus 
suggested for the understanding of the Old Testament book or 
document. But, in addition to this, it is of great value to be 
able to translate the ancient situations, institutions, and ideas 
into terms of modern life and thought. Being unable to 
carry our public back to the days of the Hebrew people, we 
must at least, so far as possible, bring the ancient hfe down 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 119 

to our modern days and interpret it in terms of our own 
age. One of the best examples of this method of exposition 
is furnished us in, George Adam Smith's commentaries on 
Isaiah and the minor prophets. 

Literature on criticism and interpretation. — Some of the more impor- 
tant works treating of matters of literary criticism and interpretation as 
they concern the Old Testament are here given: S. R. Driver, An Introduc- 
tion to the Literature of the Old Testament, revised ed. (New York: Scrib- 
ner, 1914); C. H. Cornill, Introduction to the Canonical Books of the Old 
Testament (New York: Putnam, 1907); H. T. Fowler, A History of the 
Literature of Ancient Israel (New York: Macmillan, 191 2); G. B. Gray, 
A Critical Introduction to the Old Testament (New York: Scribner, 1913) ; 
C. A. Briggs, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture (New 
York: Scribner, 1899); W. Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the 
Jewish Church, 2d ed. (London: A. & C. Black, 1892); K. Budde, Ge- 
schichte der alt-hehrdischen Litter atur; mit Apokryphen und Pseudepi- 
graphen von A. Bertholet (Leipzig: Amelang, 1906); B. Duhm, Die 
Entstehung des Alten Testaments, 2d. ed. (Leipzig: Mohr, 1909); E. Sellin, 
Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer, 191 o); 
C. Steuernagel, Lehrbuch der Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Tubin- 
gen: Mohr, 191 2); L. Gautier, Introduction a VAncien Testament, 
2 vols., 2d ed. (Lausanne: Bridel & Cie., 1914); Hermann Gunkel, 
"Die israelitische Literatur," in Paul Hinneberg, Die Kultur der Gegen- 
wart, Teil I, Abt. VII, pp. 51-102 (Berlin: Teubner, 1906). The Ency- 
clopaedia Biblica, edited by T. K. Cheyne and J. S. Black (New York: 
Macmillan, 1 899-1 903), and Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (New 
York: Scribner, 1899-1904) contain articles of introduction to each of 
the Old Testament books; in addition, the general articles in the 
former on "Historical Literature" (G. F. Moore), "Law Literature" 
(G. B. Gray), "Poetical Literature" (B. Duhm), and "Wisdom 
Literature" (C. H. Toy) are excellent presentations of the main facts 
in each case. Similar articles in the nth edition of the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica are well worth study. 

IV. THE HISTORY OF THE HEBREWS 

Important and valuable as the work of interpretation is, it 
is only as its results are gathered up and given larger sig- 
nificance by the historian that it comes to full fruition. 



I20 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Interpretation of documents is fundamental in the recon- 
struction of history, while history is the crown and glory of 
interpretation. 

• Scope of history. — The historian seeks to cover the record 
of the whole life of a given people. There is no phase of its 
thought or activity that is not of interest to him. A full 
understanding of the development of any people requires a 
full knowledge of the various influences that have co-operated 
in the production of the result. The political history of a 
people cannot be understood as a thing apart from its intel- 
lectual, social, economic, ethical, and religious life. Nat'onal 
life is a unitary thing ; all its parts are bound together in one 
structure and exercise mutual and reciprocal influence one 
upon another. Every fragment of information, of what- 
soever kind, is therefore of significance to the historian. He 
seeks for facts wheresoever they may be found, and, given 
equal powers of interpretation and exposition for all, the 
truest reconstruction of a people's history will be presented by 
that historian who is in possession of the widest and most 
accurate knowledge of facts. 

Dating of sources. — Naturally, the most valuable source of 
information for Hebrew history is the Old Testament. The 
first step in the use of this source for historical purposes is to 
accept the results of literary criticism regarding the time of 
origin for each of the literary units composing the Old Testa- 
ment. Its thirty-nine books must be arranged in chrono- 
logical order, that each one may make its contribution at 
the proper point in the course of the history. Having gone 
thus far, we must go farther and discriminate among the 
various literary strata of which the Old Testament books are 
composed. The Hexateuch, for example, as a complete work 
belongs to the fourth century B.C.; but it contains within 
itself elements of much greater age, some of which go back 
even as literary documents to the eighth or ninth century 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 121 

B.C., and perhaps farther.^ Before the Hexateuch can be 
properly used as a historical source it must be analyzed into 
its primitive constituent elements, and these must in turn 
be arranged in chronological order. In like manner the 
Books of Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and 
Nehemiah have been found to be composite and must submit 
to an analysis and a chronological assignment of the com- 
ponent parts. Similar processes are applied to the writings of 
the prophets and the poets. 

It is at this point that a large measure of uncertainty must 
attach to any effort toward a reconstruction of Hebrew history. 
The dating of many of the literary strata within the Old Testa- 
ment is of necessity a somewhat subjective piece of work. 
Few tangible and definite chronological indices are at hand, 
and in their absence more reliance than is desirable has to be 
placed upon considerations of taste and judgment. The 
farther the historian moves from firmly fixed objective facts 
into the regions of thought and feeling the more speculative 
are his results. But no truly historical mind can rest content 
with a bare list of chronologically attested facts. Chronology 
is not history, but merely its framework. The historian must 
fill in the picture as best he can, seeking for the full historical 
setting, of which the definitely known and placed facts form 
but a small part. It is inevitable, therefore, that there will 
always be many variant representations of the progress of 
Hebrew history; for conjecture and imagination, even when 
controlled by sound historical principles and methods, afford 
wide scope for variations in judgment. 

Facts versus interpretation of facts. — When a literary 
source has finally been definitely placed in time, a new prob- 
lem presents itself to the historian. He is seeking for facts; 
his literary record offers him an interpretation of facts. 

^ See my article, " Some Problems in the Early History of Hebrew Religion," 
American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, XXXII (1916), 81-97. 



122 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

The record is the product of some person's observation of an 
event, or study of a tradition, or thought upon an experience. 
Consequently it partakes of the limitations and reflects the 
characteristics of the writer. A single individual, with the 
best will in the world, will almost inevitably give a partial or 
incomplete interpretation, or one in which certain aspects of 
the fact or truth are given undue prominence. The historian, 
therefore, must discriminate between a fact and its inter- 
pretation. Is the interpretation historically valid? Does 
it do full justice to the facts, or is it but a partial or prejudiced 
view ? Was the writer in possession^ of all the facts or of a 
sufficiently large proportion of them to make it possible for 
him to arrive at a just estimate of the situation? Was his 
ability as an interpreter vitiated by the purpose for which he 
was writing ? Did he desire primarily to find out exactly 
what the facts were and to make them known, or were facts 
only secondary or incidental matters with him, his mind being 
set upon some great political, social, or religious end ? 

A literary document that purports to narrate some past 
event is not infrequently a source of information regarding at 
least two periods, viz., the age in which the event occurred 
and the age in which the narrator lived. To the extent to 
which a faithful record is given of the situation or circumstance 
described the document is of value as a witness to the actual 
facts; but even when, for various reasons, a document is any- 
thing but a faithful record of actual facts, it may be of 
exceedingly great value for the age from which it itself 
originates. That is to say, a writer always reveals some- 
thing of the milieu out of which he writes. Whatever he 
may or may not tell us directly of the more or less remote 
period whose history he is recording, he will certainly tell 
us, more or less indirectly, much regarding the times in 
which he himself lives. He will write in the language of his 
own day; he will drop occasional allusions to recent or con- 
temporary occurrences and personalities; he will reflect the 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 123 

opinions — political, social, ethical, or religious — of his genera- 
tion, and he will employ the literary and historical methods and 
point of view of the world in which he is living. No twentieth- 
century document could ever be mistaken for a sixteenth- 
century document, even if it were a history of the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth. 

It is of the greatest importance that the historian of the 
Hebrew people should . make this differentiation between 
fact and interpretation of fact. The Old Testament records, 
even those that profess to be written as histories, were all 
written by men who knew nothing of the modern scientific 
historiographical spirit and method. They were wholly 
lacking in all that goes to make up critical scholarship in the 
field of history. They accepted as true practically all that 
tradition had to offer them. They never dreamed of sub- 
mitting traditions to cold-blooded, scientific investigation. 
They wrote, not for the purpose of recording facts for fact's 
sake, but for the edification and inspiration of their people. 
They selected their materials and modified them as seemed 
necessary from this point of view. The result is, not in- 
frequently, a disproportionate emphasis upon some phase of 
the national life and a complete ignoring of others equally 
important. Furthermore, Hebrew writers, like all other 
ancient historians, were almost totally lacking in the sense 
of perspective. They were unable to make the necessary 
allowance for the lapse of time. They looked at events and 
situations from the standpoint of their own age. They did 
not think of the necessity of divesting themselves of all that 
the progress of time had brought to them and of putting 
themselves in the place of those whose sayings and doings 
they were recording. They judged everything and every- 
body by their own standards and conceived of people of 
former generations as actuated by the same ideals and pur- 
poses as they themselves were. They read back into ancient 
times the ideas and institutions of their own times without 



124 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

a thought of the incongruity that must often result from such 
a procedure. 

The interpretative bias illustrated by the Books of Chron- 
icles. — Plentiful illustration of the characteristics here enumer- 
ated is furnished by the Books of Chronicles. In them the 
spirit and method of much of the Hebrew writing is most 
clearly seen. A comparison of these books with the corre- 
sponding portions of the Books of Samuel and Kings is most 
instructive and illuminating. These two sections of the Old 
Testament cover largely the same ground. But the interests, 
point of view, and aims of the writers are widely different. 
These differences control their selection and use of materials 
and result in interpretations which vary radically. The 
Chronicler, living after the fall of the Northern Kingdom and 
regarding that kingdom as having been contrary to the will of 
Yahweh throughout its history, almost wholly ignores it in his 
narrative, giving it mention only where the history of Judah 
was so inextricably interwoven with that of Israel as to compel 
recognition of the latter by the recorder. The Chronicler, 
being concerned chiefly in an effort to validate the temple 
at Jerusalem and its ritual as he knew them, traces the 
institutions of his own day back to the days of David, to 
whom he assigns the whole organization of the temple cultus. 
The Chronicler's David is an ecclesiastic first of all; out of 
the nineteen chapters devoted to David's life and work in 
Chronicles eleven are devoted to accounts of his activities 
in connection with temple, ritual, and the like. The same 
desire to represent the great King David as fulfilHng the 
Chronicler's ideal of a king leads him to omit almost all 
reference to the sins of David, which bulk so large in the 
Samuel record. The only sin noticed by him is that of taking 
the census; and a striking difference appears in his narrative 
regarding it. In II Sam. 24:1 we are told that Yahweh 
moved David to number Israel and Judah and then punished 
him and his people for so doing. This was not ethically 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 125 

justifiable in the Chronicler's eyes; hence in I Chron. 21:1 
we read: *' Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David 
to number Israel/' Similar liberty in modifying and even 
contradicting the earlier record is often taken by the Chronicler 
when the purpose he has in mind seems to him to require it; 
cf., for example, II Chron. 14:5 and 17:6 with I Kings 15: 14 
and 22:43; II Chron. 24:26 and II Kings 12:21 (where the 
Chronicler's attitude toward mixed, marriages leads him 
to attach the terms ''Ammonitess" and '^Moabitess"); II 
Chron. 24:4-14 with II Kings 12:5-17; II Chron. 36:9 
with II Kings 24:8. 

We have the advantage of being able to check the Chron- 
icler's accounts by the earlier records of Samuel and Kings; 
they reveal to us the great freedom with which the Chronicler 
has handled his sources and his facts. More or less of the 
same attitude is discoverable in other Old Testament writings, 
and the historical student must therefore always be on the 
lookout and ready to make allowance for the bias of his 
sources of information. The historian must endeavor to 
find out how things actually happened; he cannot rest content 
with the opinions and interpretations of uncritical writers, even 
if they were eyewitnesses of that which they record. He must 
compare testimony with testimony, witness with witness, and 
seek to get behind all records to the facts themselves. 

Geography as a historical source. — ^A second source of 
information that must be utilized to the full by the historian 
is the geography of Palestine and the neighboring lands. 
The land of Palestine, in relation to its illumination of the 
life-story of Jesus, has been well named 'Hhe Fifth Gospel." 
The same kind of value is to be obtained from it for the 
understanding of the Old Testament. The geographical 
data contained in the Old Testament are abundant; scarcely 
a page but makes one or more topographical, climatic, geo- 
logical, political, or ethnological reference, for the under- 
standing of which a knowledge of the geography of Palestine 



126 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

and the neighboring lands is almost indispensable. Travel 
and residence in Palestine and the study of good maps and 
handbooks have made the general topography of Palestine 
familiar to most students. The lay of the land, the lakes and 
rivers, the hills and greater valleys, and many of the more 
important towns are well known. On the other hand, many 
places still await exact localization and sure identification, 
e.g., Gibeah of Saul, Lo-debar, Beth-rehob, Salem, Topheth, 
Gath, Bethcar, and Aphek. 

The political significance of the geographical location of 
Palestine. — Geography has much to do with the making 
of history. Location largely determines vocation; climate 
and soil vitally affect character and function. The situation 
of Palestine was strategic. It was, as a glance at any map of 
Western Asia and Egypt will show, the only path of com- 
munication between Asia and Africa. It lay between the 
great powers of these two regions as a connecting link. All 
the commerce and culture of the ancient oriental world 
must, perforce, pass through Syria and Palestine. Palestine 
received the impress of the civilizations of Crete and the 
Aegean, of Egypt, of the Hittites, of Assyrian, Babylonian, 
Persian, Greek, and Roman, each in turn. It was the 
battlefield of contending tribes and the prize of the great 
world-powers. The control of this bridge was indispensable 
to the aspirant for world-dominion. Its inhabitants could 
not live the life of seclusion; they were inevitably involved 
in all the great military and political movements of each 
age. Their statesmen were continually confronted by great 
problems in the field of foreign affairs. The policy to be 
adopted in any great crisis became a subject of tremendous 
import and called forth opinion and discussion throughout 
the land. These people were continually in the forefront 
of the world's history and could not escape the effect of con- 
tinual concern with great issues in the realms of politics and 
morality. 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 127 

The economic resources of Palestine. — The surface of 
Palestine is very broken. Hills of varying elevation are 
intersected by valleys of greater or less extent penetrating into 
the hills and ascending to various degrees of elevation. The 
Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea run like a deep gash through 
the land from north to south. With such great variety of 
elevation and of exposure there goes a corresponding variety 
of products; consequently the land is to an unusual degree 
self-sustaining, providing for practically all the needs of its 
inhabitants. In contrast with the sandy deserts to the east 
and south it is a garden of fertility. This has always made it 
the envy and the prey of marauding bands of Bedouins and 
attracted to it the hungry hordes of the desert. The Hebrews 
themselves approached it thus and looked longingly toward 
the ''land flowing with milk and honey." But large areas of 
its surface are limestone rock, coated with an inch or two of 
soil, which raises nothing but a little grass for a few weeks in 
the springtime. Consequently, famines were no uncommon 
occurrence, the area of productive land being so small, and a 
full allotment of rain being necessary to a full yield. A study 
of the records of Judges and Joshua shows that the conquering 
Hebrews were for long confined almost wholly to the hillsides, 
and that the fertile plains were held firmly by the Canaanites. 
Economic motives played no small part in the relations 
between the incomers and the older inhabitants. In like 
manner, reference to a raised map of Palestine and Syria will 
show that Damascus was cut off from Phoenicia and the 
coast by the Lebanon ranges. Her only way out was across 
the northern end of Palestine. The need for an outlet for 
her commerce may have had much to do with the long wars 
between Damascus and Israel. The economic resources of 
Palestine were so slight, in comparison with those of the fertile 
valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates, as to constitute a 
heavy and hopeless handicap to the Hebrews in any endeavor 
to rival the political and economic power of Egypt and 



128 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Baby Ionia- Assyria. The Hebrews were never far removed 
from starvation. It may well be that this lack of things 
material contributed much toward the development of spir- 
itual riches. 

In these and other ways the influence of geography upon 
Hebrew history is easily discernible, and it well deserves the 
careful consideration of students. 

Literature upon the geography of Palestine. — The following books are 
of value on this subject : George Adam Smith, The Historical Geography 
of the Holy Land (New York: Armstrong, 1894), and Jerusalem: The 
Topography, Economics, and History from the Earliest Times to 70 A.D., 
2 vols. (New York: Armstrong, 1905); Selah Merrill, Ancient Jerusalem 
(with illustrations, charts, and plans; Chicago: Revell, 1908); L. B. 
Paton, Jerusalem in Bible Times (Chicago: The University of Chicago 
Press, 1908); E. Huntington, Palestine and Its Transformation (Boston: 
Houghton Mifflin Co., 191 1); R. L. Stewart, The Land of Israel: A 
Textbook on the Physical and Historical Geography of the Holy Land 
(Chicago: Revell, 1899); A. Socin and I. Benzingef, Palestine and 
Syria (Baedeker's Guide-Book Series), 4th ed. (New York: Scribner, 
1906); F. Buhl, Geographic des alten Palastina (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1896); 
H. Guthe, Palastina (Land und Leute: Monographien zur Erdkunde; 
mit 142 Abbildungen nach photograph. Aufnahme und einer farbigen 
Karte; Bielefeld: Velhagen u. Klasing, 1908). 

Maps. — George Adam Smith and J. G. Bartholomew, Atlas of the 
Historical Geography of the Holy Land (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 
191 5); Topographical and Physical Map of Palestine, compiled by J. G. 
Bartholomew and edited by G. Adam Smith (scale, 4 miles to the inch; 
New York: Armstrong, 1904); H. Guthe, Bibel- Atlas (in 20 Haupt- 
und 28 Nebenkarten. Mit einem Verzeichnis der alten und neuen 
Ortsnamen; Leipzig: Wagner und Debes, 1911); H. Kiepert, Wand- 
karte zur Erlduterung der biblischen Erdkunde Alten und Neuen Testaments 
(Berlin: Reimer). \ 

The most exhaustive maps of Palestine are those compiled under 
the direction of the Palestine Exploration Fund, from whose agents they 
may be obtained. Special attention may be called to the value of their 
relief maps. 

Archaeology and history. — A third source of information 
regarding Hebrew history is at hand in Hebrew archaeology. 
This science concerns itself with the material remains of 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 129 

Hebrew civilization. These are fragments of ancient build- 
ings, city walls, and fortifications; wells, cisterns, tombs, 
and graves; altars, shrines, and sacred pillars; various prod- 
ucts of artistic skill, e.g., idols, figurines, coins, statues; tools 
of various kinds and weapons; utensils for household use, 
such as jars, bowls, and lamps. In short, any product of 
human labor and skill is serviceable to the archaeologist. 
Through such things he may trace a people's progress in the 
arts and sciences and be enabled to give them their right 
place in the scale of culture. Of especial interest, however, 
are the few inscriptions that have been recovered thus far from 
the soil of Palestine. 

Whence have materials of this sort been obtained? In 
part from the representations, in inscriptions and reliefs, of 
the spoil carried away from Israel by invaders, like the Assyr- 
ians and Babylonians; in part also from the surface of the soil, 
where may still be found such things as ancient high places, 
wells, walls, and building materials from ancient structures 
which had been torn down and utilized by the natives in the 
erection of modern houses, etc. But the most fertile source 
of such materials has been and will continue to be the work of 
the excavator. Thus far excavations of any extent have been 
conducted only at Jerusalem, Jericho, Gezer, Samaria, 
Beth-shemesh, Taanach, Megiddo, Lachish, Tell-es-Safi 
(Gath[?]), Tell-Zakariya (Azekah[?]), Tell-ej-judeideh, and 
Mareshah. The work of excavation in Palestine has little 
more than begun. There is yet much soil to be overturned. 
In the words of Dr. F. J. Bliss, himself a competent and suc- 
cessful excavator: 

Excavation has all the possibilities of an infant art. The debris of 
ages has only just begun to reveal its treasures. Scattered under the 
soil are countless "documents" — documents in stone, in metal, in 
earthenware — documents inscribed and uninscribed, but each waiting 
to tell its tale of the past. Of the hundreds of buried sites in Syria and 
Palestine, those in which excavation has been attempted on any large 
scale do not reach the number of twenty. 



I30 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Relatively few inscriptions have as yet been recovered 
from the soil of Palestine. This is in part due to the many 
political and military vicissitudes of the land, and in part to the 
destructive effects of climate and soil. The more important 
written documents found are the Moabite stone, the Siloam 
inscription, the Gezer calendar, the Lachish tablet, the 
ostraca from Samaria, the Assyrian tablets from Gezer and 
from Taanach, the lion seal from Megiddo, and the stamped 
jar-handles from Tell-es-Safi and neighboring sites. 

The finds of the excavators have thrown much light on 
certain phases or sections of Hebrew history. For example, 
it is pretty generally conceded now that the Palestine excava- 
tions support the contention that there was no sudden in- 
cursion into Palestine of an overwhelming horde of Hebrews 
sweeping everything before them, but that the process of 
Hebraizing Canaan was a slow and gradual one. Again, the 
excavations show that the civilization of Palestine, into which 
the Hebrews came and with which they identified themselves, 
was not a pure, unmixed product, but rather a complex and 
composite culture into which had entered most varying ele- 
ments from widely separated homes. It was a cosmopolitan 
life in large measure. Many more interesting revelations 
doubtless await the spade of the excavator. 

Literature on Hebrew archaeology. — The following are of value: 
George A. Barton, Archaeology and the Bible (Philadelphia: American 
Sunday School Union, 1916); P. S. P. Handcock, The Latest Light on 
Bible Lands (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 
1913); and The Archaeology of the Holy Land (New York: Macmillan, 
1916; F. J. Bliss, The Development oj Palestine Exploration (New York: 
Scribner, 1906); H. Vincent, Canaan d'apres r exploration recente (Paris: 
Gabalda, 1907); S. R. Driver, Modern Research as Illustrating the 
Bible (London: Henry Frowde, 1909); W. M. Thomson, The Land 
and the Book (New York: Harper, 1882); F. J. Bliss, A Mound of 
Many Cities, or Tell-el-Hesy Excavated (London: Palestine Exploration 
Fund, 1894); F. J. Bliss, Excavations at Jerusalem, i8g4-i8g7 (London: 
Palestine Exploration Fund, 1898); F. J. Bliss and R. A. S. Macalis- 
ter, Excavations in Palestine, i8g8-igoo (London: Palestine Explora- 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 131 

tion Fund, 1902); E. Sellin, Tell-Ta^anek (Vienna: Holder, 1904); 
G. Schumacher, Tell-el-Mutesellim (Leipzig: Haupt, 1908); R. A. S. 
Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer (London: Palestine Exploration 
Fund, 1912); Sellin und Watzihger, Jericho (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913); 
W. Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebrdischen Archdologie (Leipzig: Mohr, 
1894); I. Benzinger, Hebrdische Archdologie, 2d ed. (Leipzig: Mohr, 
1907); R. Kittel, Studien zur hebrdischen Archdologie und Religions- 
geschichte (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1908). 

History of the Semitic world. — A very important contribu- 
tion to the understanding of Hebrew history is obtained 
through the study of the history of the neighboring nations. 
First of all, the inscriptions of Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, 
Persia, Moab, and Syria contain many references to Israel 
and Judah which substantiate, modify, correct, or help in the 
interpretation of the statements of the Old Testament itself. 

Literature. — The more, important of these inscriptions will be found 
translated or interpreted in their bearing upon the Old Testament in 
the following books: George A. Barton, op. cit., pp. 235-443; R. W. 
Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (New York: Eaton 
& Mains, 191 2) ; S. A. B. Mercer, Extra-Biblical Sources for Hebrew and 
Jewish History (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1913); H. 
Gressmann, Altorientalische Texte und Bilder zum A Hen Testamente 
(Tubingen: Mohr, 1909); J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt 
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1906); C. H. W. Johns, 
The Oldest Code of Laws in the World (Edinburgh: Clark, 1903), 
and The Relations between the Laws of Babylonia and the Laws of 
the Hebrew Peoples (London: Oxford University Press, 1914); S. A. 
Cook, The Laws of Moses and the Code of Hammurabi (London: Black, 
1903), R. F. Harper, The Code of Hammurabi (Chicago: The University 
of Chicago Press, 1904) ; H. V. Hilprecht, Explorations in Bible Lands 
during the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia: Holman, 1903); E. 
Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3d ed., by H. 
Zimmern und H. Winckler (Berlin: Reuther und Reichard, 1902); 
L. W. King and H. R. Hall, Egypt and Western Asia in the Light of 
Recent Discoveries (London: Society for Promotion of Christian Knowl- 
edge, 1907); A. Jeremias, The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient 
East (New York: Putnam, 1911);- W. H. Bennett, The Moabite Stone 
(Edinburgh: Clark, 191 1); A. H. Sayce, Aramaic Papyri Discovered at 
Assuan (London: A. Noring, 1908); E. Sachau, Aramdische Papyrus 



132 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

und Ostraka aus einer jiidischen Militdrkolonie zu Elephantine (Leipzig: 
Hinrichs, 191 1); A. Ungnad, Aramdische Papyrus aus Elephantine 
(Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 1); 'Ed. Meyer, Der Papyrusfund von Elephantine 
(Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 2). 

In addition to the concrete statements regarding Israel 
and Judah to be obtained from the inscriptions of neighboring 
peoples, the entire progress of their history must be con- 
sidered in its bearing upon Hebrew history. By geographical 
location the inhabitants of Palestine were the connecting 
link between the two great centers of civilization in the 
oriental world, viz., the valley of the Nile and that of the 
Euphrates. It was impossible for them to live an isolated life. 
They were of necessity involved in all the movements of the 
life of the Orient. Across their border marched and counter- 
marched the armies of the East, and their own fate lay in the 
hands of the great contenders for world-supremacy. The 
foreign policies of Egypt, of Syria, of Urartu, of Babylonia, of 
Assyria, and of Persia each in turn affected more or less pro- 
foundly the course of Hebrew history. We cannot under- 
stand the reign of King Hezekiah, for example, apart from an 
insight into the larger political field of Egypt and Western 
Asia. We get valuable light upon the series of events cul- 
minating in the Maccabean revolt and the full significance 
of that struggle as we view it in relation to the tangled politics 
of Egypt, of Syria, and of Rome. No important political 
or economic movement anywhere in the world of Egypt and 
Western Asia was without great significance for the Hebrew 
kingdoms. 

Not only in such external ways was Israel affected by the 
world about her. She was herself part and parcel of that 
world. The historian must fully recognize and give due 
weight to this fact. The Hebrews were Semites living among 
Semites. There is thus a very real sense in which the life of 
the entire Semitic world was one life. Its underlying currents, 
its dominating motives, its psychological reactions to the 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 133 

phenomena of experience were throughout the length and 
breadth of that world fundamentally the same. To write 
the history of any one part of the Semitic world without con- 
stant reference to the life of the other parts would be as 
radically wrong as to attempt to obtain an intelligent under- 
standing of the history of the state of Massachusetts apart 
from a thorough knowledge of the history of the United States 
and of England. Yet the importance of this method of ap- 
proach to Hebrew history and its full significance are only just 
beginning to dawn upon Old Testament scholars. 

Literature on the history of the related peoples. — ^J. H. Breasted, A 
History of Egypt from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest, 2d. ed. 
(New York : Scribner , 1 909) , and A History of the A ncient Egyptians (New 
York: Scribner, 1908) ; G. S. Goodspeed, A History of the Babylonians and 
Assyrians (New York: Scribner, 1902); R. W. Rogers, A History of 
Babylonia and Assyria, 6th ed. (New York: Abingdon Press, 1915); 
J. Garstang, The Land of the Hittites (New York: Dutton & Co., 1910); 
P. S. P. Handcock, Mesopotamian Archaeology (New York: Macmillan, 
191 2); L. W. King, A History of Babylonia and Assyria, 2 vols, so far 
issued (New York: Stokes & Co., 1915) ; Morris Jastrow, Jr., The Civili- 
zation of Babylonia and Assyria (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1915); Ed. 
Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, 2d ed. (Stuttgart : Cotta, 1909 ff .) ; H. R. 
Hall, The Ancient History of the Near East from the Earliest Times to the 
Battle of Salamis (London: Methuen, 1913); C. F. Lehmann-Haupt, 
Israel. Seine Entwicklung im Rahmen der Weltgeschichte (Tubingen: 
Mohr, 1911). 

Problems in Hebrew history. — The kind of problems that 
interest historians of the Hebrews at the present time may be 
indicated by a few examples. The Hebrew settlement in 
Canaan invites investigation. Conflicting views in the Old 
Testament raise questions regarding the manner and duration 
of the Hebrew entry. The likelihood of the Habiri of the 
Tell-el-Amarna letters having been Hebrews, in a wider 
application of the name, involves the probabiHty of their 
having been marauders in or invaders of Canaan in the fif- 
teenth century B.C. The stele of Merneptah places ''Israel" 



134 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

in Palestine about 1200 B.C. What relation did the gabiri 
and '^ Israel" of Palestine bear to the Jacob tribes in Egypt ? 
Were they the same people or different branches of one and 
the same people? When did they first enter Canaan — at 
the time of the Hyksos invasion, or in the Amarna period, or 
at some other time? The results of excavation show no 
break in the culture of Canaan at any point in the early days. 
Was Israel's settlement there a peaceful one, not disturbing 
existing conditions? Did the Israelites bring with them a 
culture so akin to that of Canaan as to make amalgamation 
easy and natural? Or did they come with everything to 
learn from the Canaanites, but in such relatively slight 
numbers and so gradually as to produce no appreciable effect 
upon the life of the times ? 

Another group of problems besets the return of Judah 
from exile in Babylon and the restoration of the Jewish 
community. Is the Chronicler's account in Ezra and Nehe- 
miah a wholly trustworthy one ? Was there the return of a 
large body of exiles about 536 B.C.? To what extent did 
the Chronicler use ''sources" in his record of these events, and 
to what extent did he write in independence of "sources"? 
Which was the pioneer in the work of restoration, Ezra or 
Nehemiah ? Was the hostility of the Samaritans toward the 
Jews fundamentally on account of religious or political con- 
siderations? Did the old breach between the North and 
South reassert itself here ? 

To what degree is the chronology of the Old Testament 
trustworthy? Checking it up where we have the data for 
testing it we seem forced to doubt its vaHdity at many 
points. For example, the period from the Exodus to the 
laying of the foundation stone of Solomon's temple was, 
according to I Kings 6:1, 480 years. But the sum of the 
figures given in the Hexateuch, Judges, Samuel, and Kings 
for the same period is 550 years; and these figures do not 
include the days of Joshua, the elders who outlived Joshua, 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 135 

Samuel, and Saul, which, if added, would bring the total up 
toward 650 years. The total of the reigns of the kings of 
Judah, from Athaliah to the sixth year of Hezekiah as given in 
Kings, is 165 years; the figures for the corresponding period in 
Israel are 144 years. The chronology of Hezekiah is in great 
confusion; according to II Kings 18:2, compared with 16:2, 
Ahaz was about nine years old when his son Hezekiah was 
born. Samaria fell in 721 B.C., the sixth year of Hezekiah, 
according to II Kings 18:9, 10, thus placing Hezekiah's 
accession in 727 or 726 B.C. Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem 
in 701 B.C. was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, according 
to II Kings 18: 13; this places his accession in7i5or7i4B.c. 
Such problems call for the most careful and thoroughgoing 
application of historical method to the reconstruction of the 
history of the Hebrews. Intelligence of a high order and 
patience unlimited are requisite for the treatment of this great 
subject. There is opportunity here for almost unlimited 
work, and the reward, from the point of view of the genuine 
student, will certainly be commensurate with the labor 
involved. 

Books on Hebrew history. — ^J. Wellhausen, Prolegomena zur Geschichte 
Israels, 6th ed. (Berlin: Reimer, 1905; the English edition of this famous 
work is out of print); R. Kittel, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 2d ed. 
(Gotha: Perthes, 191 2; the English translation of the first edition, 
History of the Hebrews, was published by Williams & Norgate, of Lon- 
don, in 1895-96); H. P. Smith, Old Testament History (New York: 
Scribner, 1903) ; G. W. Wade, Old Testament History, 2d ed. (New 
York: Dutton, 1903); C. F. Kent, History of the Hebrew People and 
History of the Jewish People (New York: Scribner, 1896-99) ; B. Stade, 
Geschichte des Volkes Israel (Berlin: Grote, 1887); H. Guthe, Geschichte 
des Volkes Israel, 2d ed. (Leipzig: Mohr, 1904); Ed. Meyer, Die Isra- 
eliten und ihre Nachbarstdmme (Halle : Niemeyer, 1906); W. H. Kosters, 
DieWiederherstellung Israels in der per sischen Per iode (Heidelberg: Hor- 
ning, 1895); Ed. Meyer, Die Entstehung des Judenthums (Halle: 
Niemeyer, 1896); C. C. Torrey, Ezra Studies (Chicago: The Univer- 
sity of Chicago Press, 1910); C. F. Lehmann-Haupt, Israel. Seine Ent- 
wicklung im Rahmen der Weltgeschichte (Tiibingen: Mohr, 191 1). 



1^6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

V. THE RELIGION OF THE HEBREWS 

Religion and history. — The modern approach to the study 
of Hebrew rehgion has shown that that rehgion was just as 
truly a historical product as is the religion of any other people. 
The history is one of growth or development from a primitive 
type of thought and conduct to a relatively advanced and 
lofty type. Progress in religion went hand in hand with 
progress in culture. Jephthah in a primitive age sacrificed 
his daughter to please his God. A writer in the post-exilic 
age says: 

Wherewith shall I come before Yahweh and bow myself before the most 

high God? 
Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old ? 
Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands 

of rivers of oil ? 
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body 

for the sin of my soul ? 
It has been told thee, O man, what is good. 
Yea, what does Yahweh require of thee, 
But to do justice and to love kindness, 
And to walk humbly with thy God ? [Mic. 6 : 6-8]. 

David dreads expulsion from Israel as involving banishment 
from Yahweh (I Sam. 26:19, 20). A later ''David," living 
at the other end of the Hebrew career, says : 

Whither can -I go from thy spirit ? 

And whither can I flee from thy presence ? 

If I ascend into heaven, thou art there. 

If I make Sheol my bed, lo — thou art there. 

If I take the wings of the morning. 

And dwell in the uttermost part of the sea; 

There also would thy hand lead me, 

And thy right hand hold me [Ps. 139:7-10]. 

The Second Commandment says that Yahweh is '' a jealous 
God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, upon 
the third and the fourth generation of them that hate" him. 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 137 

Ezekiel at the time of the Exile says, ''The soul that sinneth, 
it shall die: the son shall not bear the guilt of his father, 
neither shall the father bear the guilt of his son; the righteous- 
ness of the righteous shall be for himself, and the wickedness 
of the wicked shall be upon himself" (Ezek. 18:20). 

Such being the case, the study of Hebrew religion is in 
reality a part of the study of Hebrew history as a whole. 
It calls for the same preliminary processes in the treatment of 
the sources of information that any other historical investi- 
gation calls for (see pp. 120 ff.). The same sort of allowance 
must be made for the point of view and purpose of the writers, 
for their limitations, prejudices, and enthusiasms. It is 
also to be continually borne in mind that religion is one of 
the most conservative elements in civilization — that it tends 
to conserve and enshrine the old even long after the new has 
taken a place alongside it. Many a primitive religious idea 
or institution has persisted into modern times, sometimes with 
a change of function or significance that keeps it alive and 
effective, sometimes having lost all significance and become a 
mere matter of habit, sustained by the momentum of its long 
history. This will explain many an apparent inconsistency in 
the religious consciousness of later times. It also makes it 
possible to recover something of the more primitive religious 
mind from the religious practices of later generations. 

Religion and culture. — The effect of the political and eco- 
nomic history upon the content and development of the 
religious history must be carefully studied. If religion is one 
of the functions of culture, it must be studied in relation to all 
the other functions, if it is to be properly appreciated. Take 
the effect of the settlement in Canaan upon Hebrew religion as 
a case in point. The God-idea of the nomadic Israelites was 
wholly unfitted for the needs of a settled people. The God of 
the desert had been thought of as supplying all the needs of his 
people there. But a new kind of life confronted them in 
Canaan. Here they must become farmers and city-dwellers. 



138 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Whole areas of new experience were opened out before them. 
They must learn new ways of living and they must learn to 
associate their God with these new ways. The Canaanites 
were farmers and must be depended upon to teach their art 
to Israel. But the Canaanites were worshipers of the Baalim 
and organized all their agricultural life in connection with 
Baalistic rites. The Baalim were for them the lords of the 
soil and the givers of its fruits. Yahweh must displace the 
Baalim in these functions if he is to retain the loyalty of his 
people. He must become a farmer's God. This change of 
function on the part of Israel and Yahweh required much 
time. It was a life-and-death struggle for the religion of 
Israel, which ended in complete victory over the Baalim 
only after centuries of conflict; cf. Hos. 2: 2-13. 

Another illustration of the dependence of religion upon 
history is at hand in the Hebrew teaching regarding the per- 
sonal responsibility of the individual to God for his own deeds. 
This teaching never received full recognition and distinct 
emphasis till the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Prior to 
that period the whole thought of the teachers of religion 
had concerned itself with the problems and duties of the 
nation as such. The future of the Kingdom of Yahweh 
was indissolubly bound up with the future of Israel. But at 
last it became clear to the religious guides of Israel that the 
nation as such was doomed. Was Yahweh therefore to be 
eliminated from history ? This led to a transfer of attention 
from the nation to the individuals of which it was composed, 
and to a recognition that the Kingdom of God must be set 
up in the hearts of the pious. Hence, Ezekiel takes upon 
himself the " cure of souls " and wrestles with the problems and 
doubts that disturb the faith of the men of his day. Through 
the experiences of those trying times he is brought to see 
that no man is condemned by Yahweh for sins committed by 
other men, and that no man's righteousness can be counted 
to the credit of another than himself. 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 139 

Isaiah and Micah interpret the invasion of Sennacherib as 
chastisement from Yahweh for Judah's sin and lack of faith. 
A later ''Isaiah" kindles faith in the hearts of his despairing 
people by exalting Yahweh in his omnipotence and sole god- 
head, when his people are buried in exile, apparently having 
"no God, and without hope in the world." Habakkuk 
preaches the necessity of faith in God when all men's hearts 
are failing them for fear. The prophets as a whole make 
Yahweh the God of the world just when it seems inevitable 
that his own land will be overrun by the heathen. The rela- 
tion between religion and the larger life of the day was vital 
and must always be taken into account. 

Hebrew religion and Semitic religion. — ^Another aspect of 
the study of Hebrew religion is the relationship of the Hebrew 
to the oriental religions in general. We can no longer think 
of the religion of Israel as existing in a vacuum. The civili- 
zation of the Hebrews owed much to the Semitic world in 
which it was developed; we can safely say that there was little 
that was distinctively Hebraic in it. It was largely composed 
of the Semitic and non-Semitic cultures that surrounded Israel 
and were rooted in the very soil upon which she lived. If this 
be true, it is scarcely possible that the religion of Israel could 
have escaped some influence from the religions that were vital 
elements in these neighboring civilizations.. The possibility 
becomes even more vague when we consider that not a single 
one of the great fundamental institutions of the Hebrew 
religion was exclusively Hebraic. Sacrifice, prayer. Sabbath, 
circumcision, clean and unclean, prophet, priest, temple, 
feasts, fasts — all these institutions were existent among 
other Semitic peoples and that, too, long before the Hebrew 
nation and people came into being. The latter did not create 
their religious institutions; they inherited them. This inher- 
itance carried with it a tremendous body of Semitic religion 
which became the substratum of Hebrew religion. In order 
to get a right historical view of the religion of the Old 



I40 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Testament, it is incumbent upon the student to obtain some 
idea of the elements in it that were held in common with 
their Semitic ancestors and brethren, to trace their resem- 
blances, and to note their differences. 

When we discover, e.g., that in many cases precisely 
that which was ''unclean" for the Hebrew was ''taboo" for 
other peoples, we are on the way to a new understanding of 
"clean and unclean." When we note that circumcision was 
not an exclusively Hebraic rite, nor even confined to the 
Semites, but a practice in vogue among the most widely 
scattered peoples, from the North American Indian to the 
aborigines of Australasia, we approach the study of it in 
Israel with a wholly different mental attitude. When we 
learn that the root- word for "holy" is the same throughout 
the Semitic group of languages, and that in Assyrian, for 
example, it is used in one form to designate a "prostitute" 
or "harlot,"^ we get a new point of view for the interpretation 
of the Hebrew word. Even prophecy, the crown and glory 
of Hebrew religion, was at home also in Syria, Assyria, and 
Egypt. It is gradually appearing that messianic prophecy 
had very close parallels in Assyria and Egypt, and it is by no 
means unlikely that the messianism of Israel received some 
of its coloring and content from one or the other of these 
sources. 

Facts like these force upon the student the obligation to 
study the religion of the Old Testament from the comparative 
standpoint. It was not a thing apart; it was a religion 
among religions; it was one of a great family of religions. 
It exhibits strong family resemblances; but it also is marked 
by distinctly individual characteristics. Both alike must 

^ This is accounted for by the fact that the religion of Assyria found place 
for the practice of prostitution as a sacrificial honor to the gods, the givers of 
life. Being thus incorporated in the worship and attached to the shrines, the 
harlot was a "holy" person. There was evidently no thought of moral purity 
in the word at this stage. 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 141 

be investigated. The differences will appear all the more 
wonderful when they are seen against the background of so 
many and such great resemblances. 

Problems in the study of Hebrew religion. — The modern 
student finds the study of the reUgion of the Hebrews bristling 
with problems which invite attention. For example, when 
did monotheism succeed in establishing itself firmly in Israel, 
and when was it first formulated ? Was it arrived at through 
a process of speculative thought, as in Egypt in the days of 
Amenophis IV, or was it attained as the result of ethical 
necessity ? That is to say, did the Hebrews formulate mono- 
theism in response to the demand for an ethical interpretation 
of the world to which such a doctrine seemed indispensable ? 
Was any impetus toward monotheism received from Baby- 
lonia, Assyria, or Egypt, or was it a purely native product ? 
Again, how is the marvelous ethical superiority of Israel's 
religion to be accounted for? Was it a gift from above, 
unmediated by human instrumentalities? If not, what ele- 
ments in the environment and history of Israel contributed to 
this development? Were these elements present or absent 
from the experiences of the related peoples ? Are we content 
to say that the Hebrews had a special and innate affinity for 
ethics even as, according to some historians, the Greeks had 
for aesthetics? Cannot practically every Hebrew ethical 
ideal and precept be paralleled in the ethical teachings of the 
neighboring peoples ? If so, wherein precisely does the 
ethical superiority of Israel consist ? 

Yet again, the tendency of critical scholarship has been 
to place practically all the eschatological writings of the Old 
Testament in the exilic or post-exilic age. Is this procedure 
valid ? Or is it better, with some recent scholars, to make 
eschatology antedate the whole prophetic movement and to 
see in the prophetic promises and threats merely an ethicizing 
of older eschatological ideas belonging to a more or less general 
Semitic world-view ? That is, did Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and 



142 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

their successors simply take over already existing non- 
ethical conceptions regarding national disaster or deliverance 
and world-catastrophe and read into them great ethical 
lessons, making effective homiletical use of them for the 
religious education of Israel? 

The development of Hebrew law is likewise a subject that 
calls for fresh examination. The historical school of inter- 
pretation has arranged the codes in this order: (i) Covenant 
Code, (2) Deuteronomy, (3) Holiness Code, (4) Priestly Code. 
With this arrangement ha^ gone the tacit assumption that 
the last two codes at least were composed almost entirely of 
new laws, formulated in the days of the Exile and the following 
centuries. But we are now asking whether it is not more 
probable that very much of the content of these later codes was 
in existence and in use at the various shrines quite early in 
Hebrew history. Some of the laws in these two codes are 
obviously late; but are they all necessarily equally late ? Is 
it not probable that much of the law and custom of Israel 
escaped formal literary revision until a relatively late period, 
when the aggressive priestly scribes laid hands upon the 
whole religious life of Israel and set their seal indelibly 
thereon ? 

Finally, the influences and elements that entered into the 
composition of Judaism need closer definition. How much 
was the later legislation influenced by Babylonian law and 
ritual, either in the way of direct imitation and emulation 
or by way of reaction and protest ? What did Persian views 
contribute toward Jewish religious thought, especially in the 
realms of demonology, angelology, and eschatology? Did 
Greek philosophy either directly or indirectly, positively 
or negatively, shape the thought of the Hebrew sages ? 

Literature on Hebrew religion. — General: H. Preserved Smith, The 
Religion of Israel: An Historical Study (New York: Scribner 19 14); 
J. P. Peters, The Religion of the Hebrews (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1914); 
K. Marti, The Religion of the Old Testament: Its Place among the Religions 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 143 

of the nearer East (New York: Putnam, 1907); K. Budde, The Religion 
of Israel to the Exile (New York: Putnam, 1899) ; T. K. Cheyne, Jewish 
Religious Life after the Exile (New York: Putnam, 1898); B. Stade 
und A. Bertholet, Bihlische Theologie des Alten Testaments, 2 vols. 
(Tubingen: Mohr, 1905-11); R. Smend, Lehrbuch der alttestamentlichen 
Religions geschichte, 2d. ed. (Leipzig: Mohr, 1899); E. Kautzsch, 
Bihlische Theologie des Alten Testaments^ (Tiibingen: Mohr, 191 1); 
B. Bsientsch., Altorientalischer und israelitischer Monotheismus (Tubingen: 
Mohr, 1905) ; E. Sellin, Die alttestamentliche Religion im Rahmen der 
andern altorientalischen (Leipzig: Deichert, 1908); E. Konig, Geschichte 
der alttestamentlichen Religion (Giitersloh: Bertelsmann, 191 2); J. Hehn, 
Bihlische und habylonische Gottesidee (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913); H. G. 
Mitchell, The Ethics of the Old Testament (Chicago: The University of 
Chicago Press, 191 2); W. F. Bade, The Old Testament in the Light of 
To-Day (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1915); A. C. Welch, The 
Religion of Israel under the Kingdom (Edinburgh: Clark, 19 12); W. H. 
Bennett, The Religion of the Post-exilic Prophets (Edinburgh: Clark, 
1907) ; H. Wheeler Robinson, The Religious Ideas of the Old Testament 
(New York: Scribner, 19 13). 

Prophetic: C. H. Cornill, The Prophets of Israel (Chicago: Open 
Court Pub. Co., 1901); J. M. Powis Smith, The Prophet and His Proh- 
lems (New York: Scribner, 1914); L. W. Batten, The Hebrew Prophet 
(New York: Macmillan, 1905); W. R. Smith, The Prophets of Israel, 
2d ed. (London: Black, 1896); E. Sellin, Der alttestamentliche Prophetis- 
mus (Leipzig: Deichert, 1912); H. Gressmann, Der Ursprung der 
israelitisch-jildischen Eschatologie (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Rup- 
recht, 1905); M. Friedlander, Griechische Philosophic im Alten Testa- 
ment (Berlin: Reimer, 1904); J. Koberle, Silnde und Gnade im religiosen 
Lehen des Volkes Israel his auf Christum (Munich: Beck, 1905); H. 
Gressmann, Mose und seine Zeit (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht 

1913)- 

Semitic: W. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites, 2d ed. 
(London: Black, 1894); J. Wellhausen, Reste des arabischen Heiden- 
thums, 2d ed. (Berlin: Reimer, 1897); J. H. Breasted, The Development 
of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt (New York: Scribner, 191 2); 
M. Jastrow, Jr., Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens (Giessen: Ricker, 
1905-13; greatly expanded from the English edition published by 
Ginn & Co., Boston, 1898); R. W. Rogers, The Religion of Babylonia 
and Assyria (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1908); M. Jastrow, Jr., 

^A translation and revision of the article "Religion of Israel," in Has- 
tings' Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. V. 



144 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Aspects of the Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (New York: Putnam, 
191 1), and Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions (New York: Scribner, 
1914); A. Erman, Handbook of Egyptian Religion (London: Constable, 
1907). 

VI. THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 

THE CANON 

The extraordinary value of the writings composing the 
Old Testament was very early recognized. A process of 
official recognition and standardization of the literature was 
begun when the priests in Josiah's day secured the royal 
approval and public indorsement of the Deuteronomic Code 
of law (II Kings, chaps. 22, 23). Another long step and in 
the same direction was taken in the days of Ezra and Nehe- 
miah, when a new edition of the law received the stamp of 
public acceptance (Neh., chap. 8). The end toward which 
it all aimed was the erection of a Canon of Scripture. Canoni- 
zation itself was not a single act but a long-drawn-out process. 
The precise time of its beginning has not been determined; 
but the prologue to the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach (=»Ecclesi- 
asticus) furnishes clear evidence that the Law and the Prophets 
were regarded as canonical before 200 B.C., and that the 
formation of the third division of the Canon, viz., the Writings, 
had already begun at that time. Like uncertainty obtains 
regarding the date of the completion of the process of canoniza- 
tion. It seems safe to infer from the existing evidence 
that the entire Canon of the Old Testament was completed 
before the Christian era. In any case, the question of the 
Canon was taken up for discussion and settled by the Jewish 
Synod of Jamnia, which convened about 90 a.d., and decided 
in favor of the retention in the Canon of all books that had 
thus far been included. 

Problems in the history of canonization. — Many questions 
regarding canonization still remain unanswered. At what 
time did the Canon of the Law close? Just when did the 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 145 

Canon of the Prophets close? How much longer did the 
Canon of the Writings remain open ? What considerations led 
to the inclusion or exclusion of a book from the Canon? 
What did canonization involve? Were canonized books 
immune to all further editorial modification? What were 
the contents of the so-called Alexandrine Canon ? How 
did the theory of the Hellenistic Jews regarding the Canon 
differ from that of the Palestinian Jews? Why does the 
Protestant Canon not include the apocryphal books recognized 
by the Roman Catholic Canon? Must the decision of 
past generations of the Christian church regarding the 
relative values of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha be 
binding upon the conscience and judgment of the present 
day? Does the canonization of a writing make it of any 
more intrinsic value to the mind and heart of the individual 
reader ? Are not some of the Apocrypha more conducive to 
edification than some of the canonical books of the Old 
Testament ? 

Literature on the Canon. — F. Buhl, Canon and Text of the Old Testa- 
ment (Edinburgh: Clark, 1892); W. R. Smith, The Old Testament in 
the Jewish Church, 2d ed. (London: Black, 1895); H. E. Ryle, The 
Canon of the Old Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1892); K. Budde, 
Der Kanon des Alten Testaments (Giessen: J. Ricker, 1900); G. Wilde- 
boer. The Origin of the Canon of the Old Testament (London: Luzac, 
1895); W. H. Green, General Introduction to the Old Testament Canon 
(New York: Scribner, 1899); A. F. Kirkpatrick, The Divine Library of 
the Old Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1891). 

HISTORY OF THE INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 

The fact of canonization carried with it a heavy increment 
of sanctity and authority to the writings thus exalted. These 
passed on to later generations with credentials that could 
not be lightly regarded, much less ignored. Bringing such 
weighty indorsement, they had to be utilized in the religious 
education of the church. The record of the way in which 
they were used by the successive generations of believers 



146 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

is one full of interest and significance. One system of inter- 
pretation after another has come to the fore, held the center 
of the stage for a while, and finally retired, yielding its place 
to its successor. The New Testament interpretation of the 
Old Testament is of especial interest, contrasting as it does 
the rabbinical exegesis of most of the writers of the New 
Testament with the saner and sounder methods of Jesus, 
though the latter, if his attitude is correctly represented in the 
gospels, is not wholly free from rabbinical influence himself. 
Among the more prominent schools of exegetical method 
have been the literalistic, the allegorical and spiritual, the 
typological and mystical, the dogmatic, and, in later times 
particularly, the grammatical and historical. The bane of 
practically all the older exegesis was that it read into the 
text of the Old Testament the ideas and ideals of the inter- 
preters themselves. Whatever the method of interpretation 
adhered to, the interpreter felt himself under obligation to 
obtain from the words of the Old Testament, of whatever 
character the passage treated might be, some message ''for 
teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in right- 
eousness." He always took it for granted that the Old Testa- 
ment was written throughout from the point of view of the 
needs of men in all times. Consequently that method of inter- 
pretation was the most successful which secured the most 
moral and religious stimulus and instruction from any given 
passage. 

For a brief sketch of the history of interpretation, see G. H. Gilbert, 

Interpretation of the Bible (New York: Macmillan, 1908). For earlier 

points of view, compare F. W. Farrar, The History of Interpretation (New 

York: Dutton, 1886), and C. A. Briggs, General Introduction to the 

. Study of Holy Scripture (New York: Scribner, 1899), chap, xviii. 

THE VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 

In the light of the modern historical method of interpreta- 
tion the question of the value of the Old Testament calls for a 
fresh examination of the evidence. The kind of answers 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 147 

that satisfied former generations of Bible students may not be 
acceptable to modern students. We approach the Old Testa- 
ment with different presuppositions and with different 
expectations; or, rather, we try to bring to its interpretation 
no presuppositions nor expectations. We merely seek to 
discover what the writers of the Old Testament had to say. 
Having learned that, we weigh their utterances in the scales 
of critical judgment, for the purpose of estimating their value. 
The contribution of the Old Testament to religious education, 
aside from its value as a source of philological, historical, 
archaeological, sociological, and ethnological information, is 
chiefly in three directions, viz., (i) to the interpretation of the 
New Testament, (2) to the content and method of systematic 
theology, and (3) to the instruction and edification of the reli- 
gious life. 

The Old Testament in relation to the New. — Every 
properly trained student of the New Testament at the present 
time recognizes that the methodology of study worked out by 
Old Testament scholarship and the point of view there ob- 
tained must be made operative also in the New Testament. 
For a certain time after the historico-critical method had estab- 
lished itself as legitimate and indispensable in the interpre- 
tation of the Old Testament many scholars failed to realize 
the necessity of carrying it over into the New. The full 
application of the method in the study of the New Testa- 
ment has as yet been made by but few. Bitt that the New 
Testament may not exempt itself from the same kind of 
thoroughgoing treatment that has been applied to the Old is 
now generally recognized. From the point of view of the 
need of acquiring a right standpoint and methodology for 
his New Testament work a student makes no mistake in 
securing a preliminary training in the interpretation of the 
Old Testament. 

In addition to its value for training in method the study 
of the Old Testament is an indispensable element in any 



148 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

preparation for the interpretation of the New, because of the 
genetic relationship between the two. The rehgion of the New 
Testament is but the finest product and ultimate realization 
of the ideals of the Old Testament. The New cannot be 
understood apart from a sympathetic and appreciative 
acquaintance with the contents and character of the Old. 
Old Testament phrases and thoughts abound in its pages. 
Such books as Hebrews and Revelation simply overflow with 
Old Testament terminology, archaeology, theology, and escha- 
tology. The Old Testament was the only Bible of Jesus and 
of the writers of the New Testament. Their minds were 
saturated with it and their thinking shaped by it. The New 
Testament is the continuation of the Old, and those scholars 
who insist that the two must be studied together, that there 
is no legitimate line of demarkation between the Old Testa- 
ment and the New, but that the New is the completion of the 
Old, are not to be lightly set aside. In the words of a recent 
writer: 

The Old Testament .... affords the presuppositions that are 
indispensable to apprehend the character of Christ. It is the Old Testa- 
ment religion that Christ came to fulfil. It is as necessary to understand 
what the material was which Christ completed as the method of his 

completion It is as impossible, therefore, to understand the 

purpose and spirit of Jesus, without something of his reverence for the 
Old Testament and something of his intimacy with it, as it would be to 
understand a proposed amendment to a constitution without a knowl- 
edge of the original constitution, or to comprehend an advanced course 
in physics without studying the elementary laws of heat and light. 
The most fatal misapprehensions of Jesus are those that fail to see the 
spirit of the Old Testament in all his ideas and deeds. ^ 

The Old Testament and systematic theology. — It will 
probably have become quite evident, to those who have read 
the foregoing pages, that we need not expect the Old Tes- 
tament to furnish the systematic theologian ready-made 
doctrines with which he may build up his system. We have 

^ A. W. Vernon, Relipous Value of the Old Testament, pp. 66 f . 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 149 

outgrown the period when the content of systematic theology 
was supposed to be furnished by bibhcal theology. The fact 
is that the historical study of the Old Testament does not 
deliver to us any product which we can properly label Old 
Testament theology. 

The Old Testament is the fragmentary record of a growing 
religious life. Changing environment, growing experience, 
the coming and going of towering personalities, kept Israel's 
life from becoming fixed and rigid. No two centuries pre- 
sented the same type of religious thought and experience. 
But theology and religious experience are, or at least ought 
to be, inseparably related. So the ever- changing experience 
involved an ever-changing theology. The seeker after 
an Old Testament theology is therefore embarrassed by a 
superfluity of riches. He finds not one, but many theologies. 
He may, e.g., speak of the theology of Amos, or of Isaiah, or 
of Ezekiel, or he may group certain personalities and formu- 
late a theology of the eighth century B.C., or of the Exile. 
But he may not group them all into one Old Testament 
theology, for the differences, yea, contradictions, render 
such a step impossible. Nor may he select the best features 
from the various periods and weave them into a harmonious 
whole. The result would be an eclectic theology derived from 
the Old Testament, but not an Old Testament theology; it 
would be an abstract, imaginary thing that never had any 
historic existence or value. Nor may he even take the 
theology of the last days of the Old Testament period and 
say, ''This is the typical Old Testament theology; this 
is the ripe fruitage of the whole process of growth; it is the 
end, the purpose, of the whole theological development of the 
Hebrews, and so may be taken as fitly representing the Old 
Testament point of view and contribution to theological 
science." Such a method would give only a partial presenta- 
tion of the theological teachings of the Old Testament. For 
the theology of the last days did not, as a matter of fact, take 



I50 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

up into itself all the good of the preceding ages, no matter how 
generous we may be in our attitude toward the literary and 
religious activities of the post-exilic age. 

It appears then that Old Testament science is not now, 
nor ever will be, in a position to present to the systematic 
theologian a scheme of Old Testament theology which he may 
accept or reject in whole or in part according as it meets or 
fails to meet his systematic needs. Old Testament science, 
with all of its departments, belongs in the category of his- 
torical disciplines. Old Testament theology must give way 
to Religions geschichte. It is from this point of view only that 
we may consider its relation to systematic theology. The 
adoption of this conception of the Old Testament as the 
register of a series of historical permutations of life and thought 
carries with it a total abandoment of the conception of an 
external, mechanical authority to be exercised arbitrarily over 
the thoughts of men. Such authority as inheres in the Old 
Testament will now be seen to be conditioned solely upon the 
existence in the Old Testament of great truths which appeal 
with compelling force to the mind and conscience of man. It 
is as the repository of such self-authenticating truth as needs 
no factitious support of any kind that the Old Testament 
must appeal alike to the religious man and to the systematic 
theologian. 

The Old Testament is thus a sourcebook for the theologian. 
Theology may ignore no phase of human experience from the 
beginning of human history. It must take into account all 
known facts of both past and present. The Old Testament's 
value for theology lies in the fact that it is the record of an 
especially illuminating section of the religious history of our 
race. In that period were wrought out the foundations of 
much of the religious thought of our day. We understand the 
nature and value of the ideas and institutions of our own 
religious life the better for being able to trace their origin and 
growth. A satisfactory theology must root itself deeply in 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 151 

the experience of former generations as well as in that of 
contemporaries. Here the Old Testament aids the theologian. 
It does not in any sense stand as dictator over his utterances, 
but, like other tributary disciplines, it offers him free use of 
all its stores. 

The Old Testament and vital religion. — It is unnecessary 
here to emphasize the great contribution of the Old Testa- 
ment to moral and religious character-building, a contribution 
much of which lies upon the surface and is thus within the 
reach of every reader. The great sermons of the prophets, 
the spiritual longings and ideals of the Psalter, the sound 
maxims of the sages — these have always wrought mightily in 
the experience of men for good, no matter what method of 
interpretation was for the time being in control. But it may 
be well here to call attention to a phase or two of the religious 
value of the Old Testament that are not so commonly recog- 
nized. 

Its attitude toward truth. — One of the most significant 
things in the Old Testament is the attitude toward truth 
therein reflected. The Old Testament worthies respected 
the past; yea, reverenced it. They never tired of reference 
to it. They gloried in their history; it was to them a never- 
failing fount of information and inspiration. They never 
dreamed of such a thing as ignoring their traditions. They 
could not and would not make an absolute break with the 
accumulated experience of preceding centuries. But, on the 
other hand, they did not blindly worship the past. They 
did not allow it to take such complete possession of them as to 
render them incapable of appreciating the present or of mak- 
ing progress toward the future. They valued the past for 
what it had to teach them about God and about life; but 
they never regarded it as being the repository of all knowledge 
or the full and complete guidebook for all time to come. Their 
attitude, indeed, was quite the reverse; it was one of expecta- 
tion, anticipation, hope. They were ever looking eagerly, 



152 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

longingly, confidently, for new light to flash forth from above. 
They were decidedly receptive toward new ideas. They did 
not attempt to open "the future's golden portals with the 
past's blood-rusted key." 

The history of Hebrew literature clearly demonstrates this. 
It is a history of revisions. New editions of the old truths 
were constantly in demand. We have only to call to mind 
the three great editions of the Hebrew law, each of them prac- 
tically a rewriting of the old lawbook. Between these great 
editions there was constantly going on a process of correction 
and expansion in preparation for a new code. All this was in 
response to the growth of knowledge and to the ever-changing 
needs of the time. The law of Israel was not the cold, dead 
thing that it is so commonly conceived to have been ; it was a 
vital organism, in closest touch with the growing life of the 
nation. It was not too sacred and holy for the touch of 
human hands. Its promoters never conceived of it as having 
reached the stage of finality. It grew under their hands up to 
the very last. There were not wanting men who even dared 
to look forward to the time when the written law would be 
outgrown, a thing of the past, having fully accomplished its 
mission — and all this notwithstanding the fact that they held 
it to be a revelation from God. They knew better than to 
think that the revelation of one age could satisfy the needs of 
every age. Each age must have its own revelation from God. 
Jesus did but reincarnate the old spirit of Israel's best thinkers 
when he dared to set aside certain phases of the law of Moses 
and to substitute for them great, far-reaching principles of 
truth and right. 

The same spirit of independence and progress is manifested 
in the prophets, and even to a greater degree than in the law. 
The very foundation of prophecy lay in the conviction that 
God was ever ready to speak to his children, that he had not 
yet exhausted his message to Israel. Consequently, with 
every fresh crisis in the history of Israel there appeared great 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 153 

prophets with the necessary message from God. They con- 
ceived it to be their task to interpret the world as they found 
it, and not as their fathers or grandfathers had known it. 
They utiHzed the experience of the past for the interpretation 
of the present; but ear and eye were ever open and alert for 
the divine message in the new, in the experiences of today. 

In ethical and theological ideas growth was manifested and 
progress was made; so that, at the end, the religion of Israel 
was immeasurably richer and more spiritual than it was at 
the beginning. The religion of Israel was not a static thing, 
but a dynamic spirit. It was not a gift from above, bestowed 
upon Israel at the beginning of her career to be carefully 
treasured in earthen vessels. Nor was it a series of gifts, 
imparted from time to time in some way wholly unrelated to 
the natural and normal life of the people. It was an achieve- 
ment, wrought out with heroic faith and courage and mar- 
velous persistence. 

Israel was girded for this task in no way that was not 
available to her fellow-workers in that age or to her successors 
in the present age. The story of her religious progress is not 
one of unbroken success and steady advance. She labored 
under the same limitations that beset religious men today. 
She encountered the same opposition and was subjected to the 
same sorts of temptation and trial. The whole record is 
intensely human and, for that reason, intensely interesting. 
Her good men did not always think alike or feel alike. Radical 
differences of opinion at times separated her prophets and 
saints in hostile camps. There was no royal road to truth and 
power in Israel. The men of Israel had to struggle toward 
the truth and to agonize for it even as men must now. There 
is no discharge from that war. It is man's heritage. 

The task of faith. — Nor was the task of faith any easier 
then than now. The Hebrew faith insisted that godliness ought 
to be profitable for all things. Prosperity and piety were 
almost interchangeable terms. But the actual facts of 



154 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

experience seemed to contradict such doctrine at every turn. 
The national history is one of successive disasters. The 
greater nations of the Orient, one after another, conquered 
and exploited Israel. The people of Yahweh were almost con- 
tinuously trodden under the foot of the Gentiles. The more 
zealously Israel strove to please her God the less did he seem 
to do for her. No severer test of faith than this could have 
been devised. But Israel held fast to her God. Forced to 
abandon hope of relief in the present dispensation she took 
refuge in the thought of a new dispensation. The nation's 
goal of faith became the establishment of a messianic kingdom 
upon earth. This expectation involved the coming of a golden 
age comparable to that once represented by the Garden of 
Eden. All the wrongs of the present were to be righted in the 
new world; and Israel, the chosen people, was to be exalted 
to the place of honor and power, as the representative of God 
upon earth. It was almost tantamount to saying that, in the 
messianic age, all conditions would be exactly the reverse of 
what they were in the historical Israel. But the time of the 
fulfilment of this dream was continually deferred. Out 
of what looked like the national grave Ezekiel saw clearly 
the coming of the longed-for kingdom and went so far as to 
prepare an outline of the regulations that should control its 
work and worship. The Isaiah of the Exile saw the dawn of 
the messianic age upon the horizon when Cyrus started his 
career of conquest. When the Persian Empire was shaken 
to its foundations upon the death of Cambyses, the prophets 
Haggai and Zechariah were certain that Yahweh was about 
to intervene and to introduce the messianic kingdom. 
They were so sure of this that they confidently identi- 
fied Zerubbabel as the expected Messiah. This hope was 
again aroused by the personality and work of Nehemiah, 
whom some declared to be the Messiah. So Israel went 
on from age to age believing in God, surviving shock 
after shock of disappointment and disillusionment, and, 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 155 

through this severe process of training, coming ever into a 
clearer and better conception of God. Theological dogmas 
were modified or abandoned in order to make place for new 
ones; but through it all faith endured. The trial and 
triumph of faith as it affects the life and religion of the indi- 
vidual are depicted with marvelous skill in the Book of Job. 
This affords us a view of the kind of problem that was of vital 
importance in the Hebrew religious experience and of the 
unflinching courage and of the loyalty to truth, to facts, and 
to God of which the Hebrews were capable. Their religion 
was not a gift; it was a -prize. They fought for it; they 
suffered for it; they died. But through their struggle, 
endurance, and death they have incalculably enriched the 
religious life of all ages. 

The record of this great religious experience was written 
for our learning. That experience was wrought out under 
ordinary conditions, such as are common to men. The 
Hebrews were given no extraordinary or abnormal aids or 
advantages not within the reach of other men, then as now. 
God did not show favor toward them in any such way as to 
render them exempt from the temptations, weaknesses, fail- 
ures, and sins that beset us all. Nor were they endued with 
power or grace that was not accessible to other men. Having 
the same opportunities and being possessed of the same facul- 
ties as other men, no more and no less, the Hebrew prophets 
and saints threw themselves heart and soul into the task of 
interpreting the world about them in terms of God. The 
Old Testament is the record of their success. 

Vitality of Hebrew religion. — This means that the Old 
Testament has become for us, as compared with our ancestors, 
a more human document, and consequently a more helpful one. 
It has become, that is to say, more definitely applicable to the 
conditions of modern life. We learn from its pages how the 
Hebrews wrought out their own salvation. In this record of 
their religious experience we have the story of the making 



156 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

of a religion. The thousand-year-long process is portrayed 
before our eyes. It reveals much of inestimable value to 
the historical student of religion. The Hebrew religion was 
always ''in the making"; it was never a finished product. 
Each generation exercised the right to make its religion for 
itself. Not that they started out afresh each time by casting 
overboard all the accumulations of preceding generations, 
but they did not hesitate to ''prove all things" in order that 
they might "hold fast that which was good." They changed 
their theology from time to time; they reorganized their 
religious institutions as changing circumstances and changing 
views required ; they accepted materials from every hand and 
used them for the enrichment of their religious faith and hope. 
They were never satisfied with present attainments. They 
were constantly striving toward something better. In spite 
of reaction and relapse they persisted in pushing forward. 
They were by no means making a religion to order for later 
generations; they were rather making one for themselves, 
something to live by as they went along. What they had to 
do every age has to do for itself. They made their religion in 
the full light of history. They made it out of their daily 
experiences in the great currents of the world's life. A vital 
religion is always in the making; it is never made. Satis- 
faction with present achievement spells death here as else- 
where. Religion is under the same law as every other product 
of the human spirit. We too must interpret our own world 
religiously; we must be making our own religion. We may 
learn from the successes of the Hebrews and profit by their 
failures. 

The words of Matthew Arnold on the relation of modern 
poetry to that of the ancients apply with special force here: 
"The present has to make its own poetry, and not even 
Sophocles and his compeers, any more than Dante and 
Shakespere, are enough for it. That I will not dispute. But 
no other poets so well show to the poetry of the present the 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 157 

way it must take."^ No matter how much we may learn 
from Israel, we cannot rest content with that. We cannot 
shirk the task of making a religion for ourselves. Ready-made 
religion, from whatever age it may come to us, will not fit 
our spiritual needs, however well it may have fitted the age in 
which it originated. The twentieth-century world needs a 
twentieth-century religion, and it is part of its task to make 
that religion for itself. 

The Hebrews, with far less of inherited privilege and edu- 
cational and social opportunity than we, carried the torch of 
truth and piety far up the heights. Material civilization 
and culture have moved far since their day and are still advanc- 
ing with giant strides. Religion and moraHty too, upon the 
basis of the achievements of the Hebrews, have added greatly 
to their attainments. But progress cannot cease at any point 
if religion is to remain a vital force in the lives of men. As 
long as progress is characteristic of other phases of human 
activity, religion too must grow. It cannot remain static 
while all else is dynamic. ^'An unchangeable Christianity 
would mean the end of Christianity itself. There has never 
been such an unchangeable Christianity and never can be so 
long as it belongs genuinely to history."^ It is the task of the 
leaders of the religious life of today to see to it that the religion 
they teach and embody shall be one suited to the needs of the 
modern world. If they can meet the demands of the present 
age, the future may be trusted to look out for itself. If they 
serve their day and generation faithfully according to the 
will of God, they will hand on the heritage to their successors 
with some increment of truth and power. 

An inspiration to the modern minister. — The modern atti- 
tude toward the Old Testament brings to the true preacher a 
sense of freedom and the realization of a creative opportunity. 

^ From the closing paragraph of the essay on The Pagan and the Christian 
Sentiment. 

^ Ernst Troeltsch in American Journal of Theology, XVII (January, 
1913), 21. 



IS8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

He discovers himself to be in the Kne of the prophetic suc- 
cession, at least, even if he dare not lay claim to '^apostoKc 
succession." He is released from the necessity of merely 
repeating, in parrot fashion, the messages of men long since 
dead. His work is at once seen to be of the same kind as that 
of his great prophetic predecessors. They had no Bible from 
which they must preach or from which they might learn. 
Equipped with a knowledge of a few traditions regarding 
their people's history, they studied closely the social and 
political conditions of their times and poured forth words 
of scathing denunciation of wrong, or glowing assurances of 
Yahweh's purpose to deliver, as the situation might demand. 
They preached to the people of their own day and about the 
things in which the nation was most deeply concerned. They 
applied their highest ideals of religion and ethics to every 
phase of contemporary life. When Jerusalem was split into 
contending political parties, one pro-Assyrian and another 
pro-Egyptian,' Isaiah preached on politics. When the rich 
were grinding the face of the poor and swallowing up widows' 
houses, men like Amos and Micah became the champions of 
the poor and preached social justice. Such men did not frit- 
ter away their time upon the exposition of abstract and dead 
issues nor upon the contemplation of iridescent dreams. 
They used the raw materials of contemporary life in the 
structure of their religion. They were not content with 
pointing out the dealings of God with past generations nor 
with dwelling upon his purpose for the future; but they took 
the events and movements of their own day and gave them 
religious significance. Hence their words have great and im- 
perishable value for all time, not because they set out to 
write great books, but because, being great men, they grappled 
fearlessly and effectively with the real problems of their own 
day. The history of Greece and Rome furnishes us a familiar 
analogy here. A well-known classical scholar, speaking of 
the new education, has said: 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 159 

1 have tarried a moment with the ancients, instead of beginning 
much later in the history of Europe, expressly to suggest that the best 
things in ancient literature were not written solely from the artistic, but 
often from the social motive as well. Letters, and originally men of 
letters, were not sundered from public life, but actively contributed to it. 
If the classics have molded later history, it is not merely because of their 
great qualities as literature, but because they are involved in the history 
of their own times. ^ 

It is such wrestling with the social, political, and religious 
problems of one's age that makes intellectual, moral, and 
religious fiber strong. No greatness ever came as the result 
of a mere slavish doing over again of the things that have 
already been done, or of a thinking over again of the thoughts 
that have already been thought.^ It is always in some degree 
the application of the old idea to a new situation in a vital 
way that makes the old idea into something new and great. 
The prophets sought all the light the past had to shed upon 
their task. But they gave themselves primarily and with 
open minds to the study of their own times. The evils and 
errors of their contemporaries they undertook to detect and 
correct. It was their unselfish and untrammeled devotion to 
the tasks of their own day that made them great and resulted 
in a literature that is an object of admiration and a fountain 
of inspiration to all thoughtful men. 

The Old Testament prophets are a worthy example and 
inspiration for the modern preacher. They call him to the 
exercise of his highest function. They would not justify 
him, indeed, in ignoring the wisdom and experience of the 
past; but they urge upon him the duty and privilege of 
utilizing the past for the illumination of the present. They 
indicate to him that his task is to study the conditions of his 

^ Professor E. K, Rand, of Harvard, in Latin and Greek in American Educa- 
tion, edited by F. Kelsey (New York: Macmillan, 191 1), p. 262. 

2 Cf . the words of E. A, Ross, in The Changing Chinese (1911), p. 54, 
regarding the intellectual sterility of the Chinese: "As well expect an apple 
tree to blossom in October as expect genius to blossom among people convinced 
that the perfection of wisdom had been granted to the sages of antiquity." 



i6o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

own day and to address himself to the betterment of those 
conditions in the fear of God and of none other. The proph- 
ets, Hving in a small world, made a great rehgion. We live 
in a world immeasurably greater than that of the prophets' 
thought. Our God is the God of a boundless universe. Is 
our religion proportionately greater ? Have we made a place 
in our religion for every remotest corner and every hidden 
force and inexplicable power of this universe? Have we 
succeeded in adjusting our thought of God to our expanding 
world, as the Hebrews were able to enlarge their thought, 
which carried Yahweh along from the most restricted begin- 
nings until he became the God of the whole known world ? 

What was it that made the prophets so strong and fearless 
in the execution of their commission? Their reliance upon 
God. They were ever conscious of his presence in his world. 
They saw proof of his activity on every hand, in the phe- 
nomena of nature and in the course of history. They con- 
ceived of him as seeking to make known his will to man. 
They thought of themselves as his mouthpiece. As the 
spokesmen of God they could not keep silent when his will 
clamored for utterance. "The Lord hath spoken; who can 
but prophesy?" Some such consciousness of God and of 
working together with God is indispensable to the true 
preacher in whatever age he may appear. A preacher not 
conscious of fellowship with the God of the universe has no 
message for this age; the age cries out for God. The man 
who can make God seem real and can acquit himself as a 
man of God will never lack a hearing, though his way may be 
a via dolorosa. 

The church needs leaders. The record of Israel's leaders 
is a splendid challenge to the men of today. It appeals to all 
that is highest and holiest in the one ambitious to *'do great 
things for God." Israel's saints expected great things from God, 
but received greater things than those for which they hoped. 
Coveting position and power for their nation among the 



OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL i6i 

nations of the world, they received instead exalted purity of 
thought, magnificent ethical passion, and a depth of spiritual 
insight that have made the whole world their debtors. If the 
men of this and succeeding generations, following the example 
of their Hebrew predecessors, will become the fearless spokes- 
men and champions of a virile and spiritually progressive 
Christianity, it is, perhaps, not too much to hope that the 
religion of the not-far-distant future will be as much greater 
than, and different from, that of today as present religion 
differs from, and is greater than, the Judaism of post-exilic 
Israel. 

Literature on the religious value of the Old Testament. — A. W. Ver- 
non, The Religious Value of the Old Testament in the Light of Modern 
Scholarship (New York: Crowell & Co., 1907); M. Dods, The Bible — 
Its Origin and Nature (New York: Scribner, 1905); W. G. Jordan, 
Biblical Criticism and Modern Thought. Or the Place of the Old Testament 
Documents in the Life of Today (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1909); 
G. A. Smith, Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the Old Testament 
(New York: Armstrong & Son, 1901); J. E. McFadyen, The Old Testa- 
ment and the Christian Church (New York: Scribner, 1903); W. N. 
Clarke, Sixty Years with the Bible (New York: Scribner, 1909); A. S. 
Peake, The Bible, Its Origin, Its Significance and Its Abiding Worth 
(New York: George H. Doran Co., 1913); W. C. Selleck, The New 
Appreciation of the Bible (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 
1907) ; C. F. Kent, The Origin and Permanent Value of the Old Testament 
(New York: Scribner, 1906); L. W. Batten, The Old Testament from the 
Modern Point of View (New York: E. S. Gorham, 1901); W. R. Smith, 
The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, 2d ed. (London: A. & C. Black, 
1895). 



IV. THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

By ERNEST DeWITT BURTON 

Professor and Head of the Department of New Testament Literature and 

Interpretation, The University of Chicago 

AND 

EDGAR JOHNSON GOODSPEED 
Professor of Biblical and Patristic Greek, The University of Chicago. 



ANALYSIS 

PAGES 

Introduction 165-174 

I. The Books of the New Testament and Their Interpretation. — 
I. The general nature of the interpretative process. — 2. The environ- 
ment of early Christianity. — 3. The occasion and purpose of the 
several books. — 4. The acquisition of the language of the New 
Testament. — 5. The criticism of the text. — 6. The interpretation 

of the books 174-220 

II. The History of the New Testament in the Christian Church. — 
I. The history of interpretation and criticism. — 2. The history of the 

Canon 220-228 

III. The Use of the New Testament at the Present Day. — i. For 
purposes of history. — 2. For systematic theology and ethics. — 3. For 
the cultivation of personal character. — 4. For religious teaching and 
preaching 228-238 

Note. — Of the foregoing the Introduction, I, i, 2, 4, 6, and III 
are by Professor Burton. 1, 3, 5, and II are by Professor Goodspeed. 



IV. THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

introduction: general purpose and scope of new 
testament study 

I. The purpose and general character of New Testament 
Study. — The purposes for which the New Testament is 
legitimately studied are many, but they may be compre- 
hensively stated as two — the intellectual and the religious. 
Men come to it to get knowledge or to get help for the better 
living of their lives as religious men. But these two purposes 
again blend into one another. One may conceivably acquire 
knowledge — geographical, archaeological, historical, or doc- 
trinal — without any religious benefit. But normally at least 
one can gain no religious benefit except through the medium of 
an intellectual process. It is through the ideas that come to 
us from the New Testament that we gain spiritual benefit, and 
it is with these ideas that New Testament study has directly 
to do. 

But we may seek ideas from the New Testament along 
several different lines and by several different methods. We 
may conceivably treat the New Testament as a book of magic 
and seek to discover in it sentences which, regardless of their 
original connection or meaning, shall give guidance in the per- 
plexities of life. We may think of it as furnishing a program 
of the future and seek from it to write history before the 
fact. We may come to it as to a source-book of ethics, culling 
from it its moral maxims and constructing them into a code, 
or of theology, and endeavor from its utterances to construct 
a system of Christian thought. 

The tendency of recent years, however, is to emphasize 
the historical aspect of New Testament study. And this 
seems to be right. For, in the first place, interpretation, by 

165 



1 66 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIQION 

which alone we obtain the ideas of the New Testament, is 
itself a historical process. Its comprehensive question is, 
What thought did the writer of the book have in his mind 
and by his book endeavor to express ? The answer to this 
question is that he thought thus and so, and this fact that 
he so thought is a fact of history, as much so as the date of a 
battle or the name of a king. Secondly, all the processes that 
are contributory to interpretation are themselves in the field of 
historical study. If one ask the meaning of an ancient word, 
or the force of a Greek tense, or which of two readings of a 
passage of the New Testament is the original one, he is asking 
for facts of history. And, in the third place, if from the 
facts ascertained by the interpretation of ancient records one 
seeks to construct the story of the life of Jesus, or an account 
of his teaching, he is obviously engaged in historical study. 
It is facts of history in their historic relations with which he 
is dealing. 

This is not, however, to say that the results of the inter- 
pretative process have no value except for purposes of history. 
The New Testament books are rich in profound and stimulat- 
ing religious thought, and because of this fact have a value 
as religious literature quite apart from their value to the 
historian. 

At two points, therefore, the historical study of the New 
Testament may make its contribution to religious thought and 
life: first, at the end of the process of interpretation, when it 
turns over to the theologian or the religious man needing 
inspiration and stimulus the rich treasure of religious thought 
which exegetical study has discovered, and, secondly, at the 
end of the process of historical construction, when it has 
written the history of the early church. 

From both points of view, whether we think of the New 
Testament books as sources from which we may learn the 
history of early Christianity, or as religious literature valuable 
as such independent of its contribution to history, they are 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 167 

of the highest value for the religious life and to the religious 
teacher.^ For history is the great teacher of mankind, and 
our richest inheritance from the past is found in the great 
thoughts preserved in literature. 

Nor must the distinction between these two points of 
view be overemphasized. The historian must recognize 
the religious value of the books in order to be a good his- 
torian. The student of the literature for its religious value 
must read it in the light of the history of the movement out 
of which it sprang if he would gain from it its highest religious 
value. The thirteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the 
Corinthians is magnificent, read as a panegyric of love, even 
when detached from its connection and historic background. 
But it becomes doubly significant and expressive when it is 
read as addressed to the Corinthians, who were ambitious to 
possess the showy, charismatic gifts of the Spirit, and were 
forgetting and depreciating the far more valuable fruit of 
the Spirit, love. The historian must be appreciative of the 
material with which he is dealing; the student of religion 
must have the historical spirit. 

2. Interpretation the central task. — With the task of his- 
torical construction, though it falls properly within the field 
of New Testament study, we are not at this point immediately 
concerned. For reasons of practical convenience this subject is 
dealt with in Chapter V, "The Early History of Christianity." 
That which claims our immediate attention is that which is 
prerequisite to constructive history, viz., interpretation and 
the processes contributory thereto. To understand the nature 
and methods of the interpretative process and its central place 
in New Testament study is of first importance to the New 
Testament student. 

3. Studies preliminary to interpretation. — But to the 
interpretation of these books certain other studies are for us 
of today necessary preliminaries. The books were written 

^See more ful]y under section III, pp. 232 ff. 



i68 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

in Greek; they have been preserved in manuscripts of the 
original text and of ancient translations which do not, however, 
perfectly agree among themselves as to how the books origi- 
nally read. Hence arises the necessity for a process of textual 
criticism by which the original text may be as nearly as possible 
recovered (cf. section I, 5, pp. 204 ff.). 

Furthermore, since the Greek of the New Testament is for 
us a foreign tongue, and even for modern Greeks an antiquated 
form of their mother- tongue, we need, in order to ascertain 
with accuracy the thought of the writers of these books, a 
knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of that ancient 
language (cf. section I, 4, pp. 200 ff.). 

But not only so ; for the interpretation of the books from 
which we learn the history of this religious movement out 
of which Christianity came to be we need to know something of 
the story of their own origin (cf. section I, 3, pp. 180 ff.). And 
to an understanding of the origin of the New Testament books 
there is needed in turn a knowledge of the Kfe in the midst of 
which they arose — that of the Jewish people of the first century 
and of the Graeco-Roman world and of the Christian move- 
ment itself, of which they were the products (cf. section I, 2, 
pp . 1 7 7 ff . ) . In other words , a general knowledge of the origin of 
Christianity, of the environment in which it arose, and of the 
way in which it came to express itself in literature, is a needful 
preparation for the interpretation of the books from which we 
are in turn to gain a fuller knowledge of the rise of Chris- 
tianity. Thus we move in a circle, or rather in a spiral: from 
the books by a simple and incomplete interpretation we gain 
a general knowledge of the movement; with the aid of this 
we read the books with fresh understanding, and this in turn 
leads to a larger knowledge of the movement, and so on 
indefinitely. 

4. Studies that must follow interpretation. — But if these 
things, textual criticism, grammar, lexicography, and a 
general knowledge of the times in which and of the move- 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 169 

ment out of which the books arose, are necessary preliminaries 
to the interpretation of the books and of any other sources of 
the history of the beginnings of Christianity, there must be 
added to the work of interpretation certain other processes if 
New Testament study is to achieve its goal. These processes 
subsequent to interpretation may be described as the critical 
and the constructive. For the results of interpretation are 
the thoughts of the ancient writers, and the interpretative 
process does not, of itself, determine their value for the pur- 
poses of history or for the promotion of the moral and spiritual 
life. The student of the New Testament who would gain from 
his study the largest value must on the one hand carefully 
avoid diverting the interpretative process from its proper 
goal by premature estimations of value, and on the other hand 
must add to the work of interpretation both a critical and a 
constructive process. 

The critical process as it deals with narrative material has 
for its purpose to add to the fact that the writer beHeved 
certain events to have happened in a certain way, a well- 
founded judgment as to what actually happened. Luke says 
that John began to preach in the fifteenth year of Tiberius. 
Is his chronology correct? As pertains to material of a 
didactic character, the critical process seeks to add to the 
historic fact that a given writer held this or that view of reli- 
gion or morals — ^itself a valuable fact immediately available 
for the history of thought — a judgment called for, not by the 
historian, but by the theologian or the moralist, concerning the 
value of the doctrine held by this ancient writer. Paul 
held that marriage was desirable only under certain conditions 
and for certain reasons. Was this judgment a sound one ? 

When we engage in the critical task in the field of event, 
i.e., when we seek to ascertain what happened in the New 
Testament times, whether the question pertain to external 
event or internal thought, though we are no longer inter- 
preters, we are still in the field of New Testament study, 



I70 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

for we are still dealing with the history of the New Testa- 
ment period. So, also, when we proceed from the historical 
data furnished by interpretation and criticism to construct 
the history of the rise of early Christianity, we are still within 
the New Testament field, whether dealing with events or ideas, 
since both events and ideas are facts of the history of the New 
Testament period. But when, having discovered by our 
interpretative process that a given early Christian writer 
or teacher, or group of writers, held certain opinions and 
doctrines we proceed to subject these to a process of critical 
judgment to determine how much of this thought can justifiably 
be taken up into modern thought, we are certainly on the outer 
edge of New Testament study and approaching that of 
theology and ethics. We are dealing, not with the facts of the 
past, but with present values. The New Testament student 
may certainly ask these questions, but he has perhaps in that 
fact become something else than a New Testament student. 

5. Closer definition of the field of New Testament study. — 
The study of the New Testament as thus understood is accord- 
ingly wholly a historical task. The studies preliminary to 
interpretation deal wholly with historical questions. Inter- 
pretation itself is a process of historic inquiry. The results of 
interpretation have a double value and use. The student may 
use them as data for the construction of the history of early 
Christianity or for their intrinsic value in the field of religious 
thought and life. In the former case he is still the historian 
of the New Testament period of the Christian movement; 
in the latter he is passing into the field of the theologian and 
the preacher. 

6. The use of other books than those of the New Testa- 
ment canon. — But the recognition of New Testament study 
as historical and as including within its task the construction 
of the history of the rise of Christianity compels the inclusion 
of other books than those of the New Testament within its 
field of work. There are two reasons for this broadening of the 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 171 

field: first, because from these other books we discover the 
environment in which Christianity arose, and, secondly, 
because from them we gain supplementary data for its early 
history. 

The sources of the history of any period or people consist of 
those historical documents and monuments which furnish 
valuable testimony of what took place in that period among 
that people. These sources may be classified as direct and 
indirect, the former including those that testify directly con- 
cerning the matter in hand, and the latter consisting of those 
which by their evidence concerning the antecedents and 
surroundings of the movement under consideration furnish 
a basis for the understanding of the direct sources and of the 
historic movement as a whole. 

Under such a definition we cannot either in principle or in 
fact strictly identify the books of the New Testament with 
the sources of the history of early Christianity. Yet we shall 
not be far wrong if we think of these as constituting the direct 
sources of our study. When the church of the second century 
collected from the existing literary products of the new reli- 
gious movement the books that gradually came to be accepted, 
along with the books of the Old Testament, as the sacred 
literature of the Christian church, the test by which they 
were selected was not indeed their value for historical purposes, 
but their value for doctrine and edification. Yet, in fact, the 
church chose none which are not valuable for the history of 
the origin and early development of Christianity, and but few 
that do not belong to the first century; and on the other hand 
it did not fail to include the most important of the sources, 
at least of those which are still extant. When, therefore, 
modern biblical scholarship came gradually to assume the 
historical point of view and to esteem the books of ancient 
times not only for their devotional and inspirational value, 
but also as sources of history, it not only followed a natural 
course, but was substantially right from a historical point 



172 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

of view in continuing to use as the principal subjects of its 
historical study, and the principal sources of the history it was 
endeavoring to construct, the books of the New Testament. 

It would indeed be of immense value to us to possess today 
some of the books which our study of the New Testament 
books and of early tradition has shown to have existed in the 
first or second century, such, e.g., as the Logia of Matthew 
or the works of Papias. Yet if we are speaking of direct 
sources still extant for the history of the Christian movement 
down to, let us say, the production of the Fourth Gospel, 
we shall have to add to the books of the New Testament per- 
haps only the First Epistle of Clement, and we shall omit, 
not as having no value, but as faUing outside the period, at 
most only two or three of the general epistles, say II Peter 
and Jude and possibly James. 

Of the indirect sources, those from which we are able to 
recover the environment of early Christianity, on the other 
hand, the number is legion. To this class belong all the 
books that were produced by the Jewish people in the last 
two centuries before Christ and the first century after (in 
a sense, indeed, the earlier literature, including the whole Old 
Testament), and all those numerous works by non- Jewish 
authors which reflect for us the currents of thought in the 
Roman Empire in the period in which Christianity was finding 
its way out from Jerusalem to all the lands of the Empire. 

7. Subsidiary lines of studies. — In still another direction 
also we may legitimately extend the boundaries of New 
Testament study in order to include two subsidiary sub- 
jects which are necessary in order to give to New Testament 
scholarship due breadth and balance, and to insure a proper 
measure of contact with the practical interests of the religious 
life. On the one hand, in accordance with the general prin- 
ciple that any process of investigation is illuminated by a 
knowledge of the experience of previous study in the same 
field, students of the New Testament have found it expedient 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 173 

to examine into the history of the use of the New Testament 
in the Christian church. On the other hand, the study of the 
New Testament does not find its end in itself, but in the con- 
tribution which it can make to hfe. For this reason, and 
because a perception of the end to be achieved illuminates the 
whole process, it is expedient that a general survey of the 
field of New Testament study should include a consideration 
of the relation of New Testament study to such other interests 
as those of systematic theology and the religious Hfe of the 
modern man. 

8. The divisions of the field. — The whole field of the New 
Testament study may then be subdivided as follows: 

I. The Books of the New Testament and Their Interpretation. 

1. The general nature of the interpretative process. 

2. The environment of early Christianity. 

3. The discovery of the occasion and purpose of the several books — 
Introduction to New Testament literature. 

4. The acquisition of the language of the New Testament. 

5. The recovery of the text : Textual criticism. 

6. The interpretation of the books of the New Testament. 

II. The History of the New Testament in the Christian Church. 

1. History of interpretation and criticism. 

2. History of the Canon. 

III. The Use of the New Testament at the Present Day. 

1. For purposes of history. 

2. For systematic theology and ethics. 

3. For the cultivation of personal character. 

4. For religious teaching and preaching. 

But while all these studies fall within the range of New 
Testament study, and must be pursued with thoroughness 
and accuracy by someone, if we of this generation are to 
understand the New Testament and know how our religion 
came to be, it does not follow either that every student of the 
New Testament must pursue these studies in the order 
indicated or that every one shall pursue all these lines of 
study. Thus a given student may carry on his study of the 
New Testament on the basis of a modern critical text of its 



174 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

books without knowing anything about the evidence on which 
this text is based or the principles according to which such 
evidence must be used in order to arrive at the true text. 
In this particular part of the field he may simply accept the 
results of the studies made by other men. Again, he may — ■ 
most students do and must — use the lexicons and grammars 
written by other men without investigating the evidence on 
which they are based. He may even do his work of inter- 
pretation on the basis of a translation instead of a Greek 
text, in which case, instead of taking the word of the lexicog- 
rapher as to what individual Greek words mean, he accepts 
the word of a translator as to what whole sentences mean, so 
far as that meaning can be indicated by a more or less literal 
translation. No scholar, however thorough, is wholly inde- 
pendent of others; every man must build on another man's 
foundation; but some begin much farther back than others. 
Again as to order of studies,' we must, as indicated above, 
move in a spiral rather than in a straight line. For centuries 
the books of the New Testament were interpreted without any 
systematic development of the preparatory lines of study, and 
each such study still depends upon the others and upon inter- 
pretation. The order of studies above indicated is therefore 
a logical rather than a hard-and-fast chronological or peda- 
gogical one. In practice, the systematic pursuit of the differ- 
ent lines of study may well be in the order indicated, but the 
thorough student will necessarily go back and forward from 
one line of work to another, using the results of all the studies 
he has at any time made to deepen his knowledge of each line of 
study to which he returns. 

I. THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THEIR 
INTERPRETATION 

I. The general nature of the interpretative process. — 

a) The meaning of the word. — The word ''interpretation" 
(Latin interpretation cognate with inter pres, derived from inter 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 175 

partes) primarily denotes the act of one who stands between 
two others to communicate the thought of one to the other. 
In usage it denotes most commonly the process of discovering 
the thought of another from its expression, with or without 
communication of the thought thus discovered to a third 
person. Interpretation, in this sense, is the exact correlate 
of expression, and the two processes enter into every com- 
munication of thought from mind to mind. The thinker con- 
verts his thought by expression, so to speak, into a visible 
or audible symbol, and the receiving mind converts the symbol 
into thought again by the process of interpretation. More 
exactly stated, the thinker creates or utters a visible or audible 
symbol of what he has in his mind, and the interpreter, 
hearing or seeing the symbol and knowing its conventional 
value, thinks the thought for which the symbol stands. 

The field of interpretation in this sense of the word is a 
very wide one. The lawyer, the student of literature, the 
historian, indeed every reader of what is written or printed, 
and every listener to the speech of his fellow-men, is an inter- 
preter. Not only so, but all who look at pictures or listen 
to music do so with the intent of repeating in their own experi- 
ence that which the painter or composer thought or felt. The 
fundamental principles of interpretation are, moreover, for all 
of these interpreters the same. In all of them, also, the term 
*' interpretation" is used either of the process by which one 
recovers for himself that which has been expressed in symbol or 
of the communication of what he has thus obtained to another. 

h) A definition of literary interpretation. — If we limit our 
thought for the moment to the interpretation of literature, 
language written or spoken, we may define interpretation as 
the process of re-presenting to one's own mind (or to the minds 
of others) the whole of that state of mind of the author of which 
the language to be interpreted was the expression 

c) Some untenable methods of interpretation. — The accept- 
ance of this definition, which, it must be remembered, is based 



176 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

upon the premise that interpretation is the correlate and com- 
plement of expression, leads to the rejection of certain methods 
of interpretation which have often been employed, not by 
biblical interpreters only, but especially by them. 

(i) It excludes the allegorical method, which conceives 
that the meaning of what is written is to be found, not in the 
thought which the writer had in mind, but in that which is 
suggested by treating statements of facts as allegories. What 
is written allegorically is, of course, according to the principles 
above enunciated, to be interpreted as allegory. But what 
is here described as the allegorical method consists in treating 
unallegorical language as allegorical, in defiance of the prin- 
ciple that interpretation is the reproduction of the thought of 
the author. 

(2) It excludes the mystical method, which, assuming that 
one is able by some inner light to discover meanings inde- 
pendently of all rules and principles, really abandons the 
search for the writer's thought and sets up the interpreter's 
thought in its place. The element of truth in this theory, of 
which it is important not to lose sight, is that interpretation 
demands sympathy with the mind of the writer to be inter- 
preted, and that in particular the interpreter of religious 
writings must himself have a sympathetic understanding of 
the possibilities of religious experience. 

(3) It excludes the dogmatic method, which assumes that 
the results of the interpretation of a certain body of literature 
must conform to the dogmas of an accepted body of doctrine 
or system of thought. This method takes on two forms, 
the traditionalistic and the rationalistic. In the former the 
interpreter finds in some traditional and accepted system of 
doctrine the standard and criterion of the results of inter- 
pretation. In the latter he sets up such a standard in a system 
of thought arrived at by supposedly rational processes. The 
impulse which gives rise to the use of this method in either 
of its forms is one that commands respect, arising, as it does, 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 177 

out of the desire to co-ordinate all the results of one's thought 
into a consistent unity. But it falls into the obvious but 
serious error of assuming that one's favorite author must 
have held the same views of truth as that at which the inter- 
preter himself has arrived or which are laid down in his 
inherited and accepted creed. 

d) The grammatico-historical method. — The only method 
which is consistent with a proper conception of interpretation 
is the so-called grammatico-historical method, which endeavors, 
by the use of historical data and the methods of historical 
investigation, to ascertain the thought which the writer or 
speaker had in mind when he wrote or spoke. This method, 
though demanding the diligent use of grammar and lexicon, 
does not reduce interpretation to a mere matter of the use of 
these instruments, but calls for the restoration of the whole 
thought- world in which the writer or speaker to be interpreted 
lived and the most complete and systematic devotion of one's 
energy to the task of rediscovering his thought. 

The question which it asks is, ''What did the writer think 
when he wrote these words?" It entirely separates the 
criticism of the results of interpretation from the interpretative 
process itself. It asks not what is true philosophically or 
theologically, but what was that experience in the mind of the 
writer of which the language is the outward expression. By 
its very nature it demands of the interpreter a knowledge of 
the thought-environment in which the book to be interpreted 
was produced and of the usages of the language in which it is 
written, and therefore calls for those studies preliminary to 
interpretation which are discussed in the paragraphs next 
following. 

2. The environment of early Christianity. — No historic 
movement takes place as an isolated phenomenon, but always 
has its antecedents and surroundings which condition its 
character and direction, and no such movement can be under- 
stood without some knowledge of its historic setting. Every 



178 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

piece or body of literature is the product and expression of the 
hfe of a people or the experience of an individual, and no 
literature can be interpreted adequately without some knowl- 
edge of the life in the midst of which it was produced. 

A study of the actual processes of expression and interpre- 
tation in everyday life and the more intensive prosecution of 
the task of interpreting ancient literature have made it 
increasingly clear that no literature can be adequately inter- 
preted with lexicon and grammar only. To read the First 
Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians as an undated piece of 
literature or as a document written by a man of today to men 
of today is to touch only on the high spots of its meaning. 
To read it as a part of an actual correspondence between 
people of the first century with the benefit of a knowledge 
of the Hfe of that period is to look through an open window 
into an intensely interesting human situation. To read the 
Gospel of Matthew ignorant of the questions which in the 
latter part of the first century were at issue between Jews 
and Christians and between Jewish and gentile Christians 
is not necessarily to fail to grasp the great central elements 
of the teaching of Jesus, but it is inevitably to miss the exact 
thought and purpose of the book and seriously to misinterpret 
the writer's state of mind and his central contention. 

But to reproduce the life, especially the intellectual and 
religious life, of that far-away period is obviously a difficult 
task. It is to this task that some of the ablest scholars of the 
last and of the present generation have devoted themselves 
most diligently. Such writers as Schiirer and Bousset have 
by their patient and thorough investigations put us in fuller 
possession of the thought and religious life of the Jewish people 
in the New Testament period than the men of the Christian 
church have ever been in any preceding age. And the investi- 
gations, which have long been in progress and are still far from 
complete, into the lifq and thinking of the people among whom 
Paul did his work are gradually giving us a truer and deeper 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 179 

insight than we have ever before had, not only into the apostle's 
thought, but into the whole life of the early church and the real 
character and significance of the early Christian movement. 
Eventually these studies promise to enable us to read the 
literature of that period with some measure, at least, of that 
sympathetic understanding and quick intelligence with which 
it was read by most educated and matiy uneducated men of 
the first century. 

The full discussion of the subject belongs to another part 
of this volume (see chap. V). But to omit all mention of it 
at this point would be to set the interpretative process itself in 
a false light. 

Literature. — On the Jewish literature, thought, and environment see 

E. Schiirer, Geschichte desjudischen Volks im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, 4th ed. 
(Leipzig : Hinrichs, 1901-9), and English translation of the second edition; 
History of the Jewish People in New Testament Times, 5 vols. (New York: 
Scribner, 189 1); Oskar Holtzmann, Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte 
(Tiibingen: Mohr, 1906); S. Mathews, History of New Testament Times 
in Palestine, 2d ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1910); E. Kautzsch 
(editor). Die Apocryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments, 
2 vols. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1900); R. H, Charles, The Apocrypha 
and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon 
Press, 1913} ; Josephus, Works, edited in the original by Niese, 7 vols. 
(Berlin: Weidmann, 1895; English translation by Whiston, various 
editions; revised by Shilleto, 5 vols. [London: Bell, 1889-90]). Philo, 
Works edited in the original by Cohn and Wendland, Vols. I-VI, 
ready (Berlin: Reimer, 1896-; English translation by Yonge, 4 vols. 
[London: Bohn, 1854-55]). 

On the non -Jewish literature, thought, and environment see 

F. Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (Chicago: Open 
Court Publishing Co., 191 1); T. R. Glover, The Conflict of Religions 
within the Roman Empire (London: Methuen, 1909); Zeller, Stoics, 
Epicureans and Sceptics; English translation by O. J. Reichel, revised 
ed. (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1892); E. V. Arnold, Roman 
Stoicism (Cambridge: University Press, 19 n); R. D. Hicks, Stoic and 
Epicurean (New York: Scribner, 1910); S. J. Case, Evolution of Early. 
Christianity (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 19 14) (see 
especially the bibliographical notes on chaps, vii-ix). 



i8o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

3. The discovery of the occasion and purpose of the 
several books. — The reproduction of the general situation in 
the midst of which the New Testament books were produced 
is, as we have seen, invaluable and indispensable to the student 
of those books. But it falls short of preparing him for the 
full understanding of them. For the intelligent reading of 
these books, that is, for their interpretation, it is requisite 
that one restore, as fully as possible, the precise occasion and 
set of circumstances out of which the book arose. 

A letter, picked up on the street, may easily be an absolute 
enigma when first read, but by the identification of its writer 
and the discovery of its occasion and purpose may become so 
full of meaning as to be the basis of a life-and-death decision 
by a court. So a letter of Paul's, written to a group of 
Christians in the first century, read without knowledge of 
the circumstances under which it was written, may seem like 
a dull essay on eschatology or a dry treatise on election and 
justification. But if it is possible for us to reproduce the 
situation which gave rise to it, out of which it sprung, and in 
which it played a part, it may become to us an intensely 
interesting and luminous reflection of the life of the church 
in the days of the apostles. 

Early Christian writings. — The religious movement which 
began with the preaching of Jesus in Galilee very soon 
found expression in writing. This was more true of Chris- 
tianity than of any contemporary religious movement of 
which we know. The literature, if we may call it by that 
name, at first consisted of personal letters called forth by a 
special situation and designed to meet an immediate need, 
and nothing more. More conscious literary works presently 
arose — gospels, prophecies, histories, sermons — and books 
were written and put in circulation. These books soon fell 
into groups, and some of these groups were at length gathered 
up into the collection known to us as the New Testament. 
But in order to understand them we must take them up 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT i8i 

individually and inquire what called them forth, who wrote 
them, why and for whom they were written. This is the 
first step toward the real understanding of the contents of 
every such ancient work. 

Possible groupings of them. — The books of the New 
Testament may be conveniently grouped about four impor- 
tant historical points: the gentile mission, which gave rise 
to the letters of Paul and afterward formed the subject of 
the Acts of the Apostles; the fall of Jerusalem, about 
which the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke gather; 
the persecution by Domitian, which called forth the Reve- 
lation, First Peter, and the Epistle to the Hebrews; and 
finally the rise of the docetic and gnostic sects, which con- 
stitutes the background of the Gospel of John and the minor 
epistles. 

From another point of view the New Testament books 
may be divided according to the literary types to which they 
belong. Some are personal letters, some are epistles — that is, 
more formal discussions of a general theme, put in epistolary 
form and published for a wide circle. Some are gospels, a 
type of literature very near biography but closer still to the 
Elijah and Elisha cycles in the Books of Kings. One, the 
Acts, is a historical book; one, James, is a sermon; and one, 
the Revelation, is the prophecy of a Christian prophet. The 
type of literature to which each book belongs is a matter of 
much importance in the study and understanding of it. 

There is, however, a more practical division of the New 
Testament writings. It is suggested in part by literary and 
in part by historical considerations. The letters of Paul 
constitute one natural group, and the early gospels and Acts 
a second. The writings relating to Domitian's persecution 
make a third, and the Gospel and Epistles of John a 
fourth. There remain the other general epistles, James, 
Jude, and II Peter. We may approach these groups in this 
order. 



i82 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

The letters of Paul. — The ancients who compiled our 
New Testament ascribed fourteen letters to Paul. The his- 
torical student of the New Testament has to satisfy himself as 
to whether all or any of these are indeed from his hand, for 
in the interpretation of them much depends upon a sound view 
of their authorship. In the effort to arrive at the facts in 
such a study we have two kinds of materials to build upon, 
the testimony of each letter as to itself and the statements of 
ancient writers about it. Neither of these may be neglected. 
It is indispensable that every scrap of ancient testimony be 
taken account of, and each letter must be minutely examined 
for every ray of light it can throw upon its writer and his 
purpose. The testimony the letter bears to its own author- 
ship and purpose is called internal evidence, the testimony 
borne by ancient writers is called external evidence, or tra- 
dition. 

Hebrews not by Paul. — If we examine the fourteen letters 
which have borne the name of Paul from these two points of 
view, it is at once clear that Hebrews is much less entitled 
to be called a letter of his than are the other thirteen. It is 
anonymous, and so the internal evidence is wanting at the 
most important point. Moreover, when closely examined 
Hebrews shows differences from the remaining letters so 
marked in language, style, and ideas that most scholars hold 
that it cannot have been the work of Paul. Nor is the voice 
of tradition by any means unanimous. Tertullian thought 
it was the work of Barnabas and did not regard it as Scrip- 
ture, and although Hebrews is first reflected in Roman 
writings, the Christian writers of Rome and the West did not 
accept it as Paul's until the middle of the fourth century. In 
fact, the assignment of Hebrews to Paul can be definitely 
traced back to one man, for the first writer to state it is 
Clement of Alexandria, and he says that he learned it from 
the Blessed Presbyter, which is his way of referring to his 
teacher Pantaenus. 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 183 

The Pastoral Letters.— li we apply these same instru- 
ments of inquiry to the other letters bearing the name of Paul, 
the letters to Timothy and Titus at once stand out as a dis- 
tinct group, from the point of view of both internal testimony 
and tradition. These Pastoral Epistles, as they are called, 
definitely claim Paul as their author, and to this extent 
satisfy the requirement of internal evidence. But when 
examined more narrowly they disclose a style and interest and 
a type of thought very different from that of Paul as we know 
him through his leading letters, and the historical situations 
that gleam through them are clearly later than the life of 
Paul. This suspicion of the Pastoral Letters, suggested 
by their own indirect internal testimony, is confirmed by a 
study of tradition about them. The earliest list of Paul's 
letters of which we know definitely, that of Marcion of 
Pontus, made about 140-50 a.d., does not include them. 
But they were accepted by Irenaeus about 180-85 ^s written 
by Paul and as parts of Christian Scripture. 

But we may not immediately conclude that these three 
letters have no connection with Paul but were wholly com- 
posed under his name at a later time. We must consider the 
possibihty that short genuine letters of his to Timothy and 
Titus were expanded into these letters as we know them, in 
order to claim the authority of Paul for much-needed regula- 
tions as to church organization and management. This 
possibility cannot be denied, but as a matter of fact all 
attempts to determine what genuinely Pauline parts are pre- 
served in these letters have proved unconvincing. More- 
over, the letters, which fit so poorly into what we know of 
Paul's life and work and thought, are readily understood if set 
in the early years of the second century when just the questions 
with which they deal were, as other documents show, deeply 
concerning the churches. In that age, too, men did not 
scruple to write letters, revelations, even gospels, in tJie name 
of other apostles, for example, Peter; and while it would have 



1 84 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

been difficult to put into circulation a letter purporting to be 
from Paul to a well-known and still active church, it would 
have been easy to put forth such letters addressed to indi- 
viduals long dead. 

Colossians and Ephesians. — The remaining ten letters 
stood in the earliest list of Paul's writings of which we have 
definite knowledge, the canon of Marcion. The evidence 
of tradition for these ten is therefore much stronger than 
for the three just discussed. But considerations of internal 
evidence, i.e., the testimony of the letters themselves, make it 
necessary to scrutinize the authenticity of some of these 
letters very closely. Colossians and Ephesians when com- 
pared prove to resemble each other in so many details of 
expression, and to present a phase of thought so different 
from anything in Paul's major letters, as to throw serious 
doubt upon their authenticity. Some scholars explain this 
as due to the fact that when Paul wrote Colossians the prac- 
tical and doctrinal errors that had appeared at Colossae had 
given his mind a new direction, and that he wrote at the same 
time a general letter (Ephesians) to the neighboring churches 
in which he dealt with the same general situation in much the 
same terms. Others have held that Colossians is indeed a 
work of Paul but that Ephesians is from the hand of a later 
follower of his who made Colossians the basis for his work. 
Others seek to solve the problem by the theory that an original 
letter to the Colossians, now lost, was expanded into the two 
epistles that we have. The relation of Ephesians and Colos- 
sians and the genuineness of these letters form one of the 
present problems of the Pauline literature. 

Ephesians presents a further problem in the matter of its 
original destination. To whom was it written ? Paul can 
hardly have sent it to the Ephesians, for it is wholly without 
personal touches, and some things in it suggest that it was 
addressed to people who did not know Paul personally, but 
only by reputation (3:2). In Marcion's list it went by 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 185 

the name of Laodiceans and the oldest manuscripts, while 
they give its title as ''To Ephesians," omit the words ''in 
Ephesus" from the first verse. The historical student has 
to inquire whether Ephesians is a circular letter sent to 
Ephesus among other places, or is the "letter from Laodicea" 
mentioned in Colossians (4:16), and in this latter case how 
it came to be called "To Ephesians." The writer of the 
Revelation (3:16), Marcion, and Basil of Caesarea throw 
some hght upon this question. 

// Thessalonians. — One other letter which has come 
down to us under the name of Paul calls for careful investiga- 
tion in the matter of its authenticity. II Thessalonians 
resembles I Thessalonians very much as Ephesians does 
Colossians. In general outline and in many details of expres- 
sion the two letters to Thessalonica agree. How did a 
writer so original and fertile-minded as Paul come to repeat 
himself in this way ? Did he have a letter book, and before 
writing II Thessalonians refer to a copy of I Thessalonians 
which he had retained ? Or did he write the two letters at 
the same time, sending one to the Greek and the other to the 
Jewish-Christian body at Thessalonica? To these psycho- 
logical doubts about II Thessalonians is added an eschato- 
logical one. The Lord's Day, it is alleged, is described in 
the first letter as coming without warning, as a thief in the 
night, but in the second a series of premonitory events is 
predicted. These difficulties must be fairly dealt with 
before II Thessalonians can be confidently accepted as a letter 
of Paul's. 

The seven undisputed letters. — Of the fourteen letters 
assigned by tradition to Paul, there remain seven with refer- 
ence to which internal evidence and tradition may fairly be 
said to agree. These are I Thessalonians, Galatians, I and II 
Corinthians, Romans, Philippians, and Philemon. They were 
probably all written between 50 and 63 a.d., and in the 
order named above. Their date and order must of course 



i86 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

be determined if their place in Paul's work and life is to be 
understood, and in this and other matters each presents its 
own special problems. 

Galatians. — In respect to Galatians, its destination is a 
problem of some interest, both for its own sake and in con- 
nection with the time of its writing. For if the Galatia of 
which Paul spoke was the Phrygian and Lycaonian region of 
the province of Galatia and not ethnographical Galatia in 
north-central Asia Minor, Paul's visit to it and the subse- 
quent composition of the letter fall earlier in his career than 
most students of the letter have supposed. 

Composite letters: Romans, II Corinthians, and Philip- 
pians. — A different type of problem is presented by Romans, 
II Corinthians, and Philippians. It is that of integrity: 
are these letters units, or is each of them made up of two 
or even three letters combined? At the end of Romans 
stands a chapter of salutations in which Paul shows a wide 
acquaintance, not only with the personnel of the house congre- 
gations at Rome, which he had never visited, but even with 
the domestic groupings of these individuals. This and other 
considerations make it probable that the sixteenth chapter 
of Romans was originally a letter to Ephesus which was 
appended to Romans when the first considerable collection 
of Paul's letters. was made, very likely at Ephesus before the 
end of the first century. 

The striking contrast between the two parts of II Corinthi- 
ans raises a similar problem. The opening chapters say much 
of comfort and reconciliation. The closing chapters, 10-13, 
are a vehement invective against Paul's critics at Corinth. It 
is difficult to explain this except on the theory that the closing 
chapters are from the painful letter of rebuke and correction 
mentioned in II Cor. 2:4 and 7:8, which has usually been 
regarded as lost. If this be true, we possess three of the four 
letters Paul is known to have written to Corinth — the second, 
fourth, and third. The case for the analysis of II Corinthians 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 187 

is stronger than that for the analysis of Romans in this respect, 
that the new letter disclosed by the analysis is one of which we 
have long known from statements in II Corinthians itself. 

The letter to the Philippians is another exception to the 
usual orderliness of Paul's letters. Its course of thought is 
unsystematic and irregular. The violent break at 3:2 pre- 
sents great difficulty to all students of the letter. Now, Paul 
must have written to Philippi at least five times; for we 
know from his own statements that the Philippians had sent 
him money or supplies on four occasions, and the return of 
Epaphroditus to Philippi evidently called forth a letter from 
Paul. Is our Philippians this last letter only, or are two 
or even three of Paul's five letters to the Philippians united 
in our letter ? The probabiKty that the latter is the case may 
be easily tested by reading Phil. 3:2 — 4:20 as a letter writ- 
ten to acknowledge the Philippians' present sent through 
Epaphroditus (Paul's fourth letter to Philippi), and 1:1 — ■ 
3:1; 4:2 1-23 as Paul's fifth letter to the Philippians, sent 
by Epaphroditus when he returned to Philippi after his ilhiess 
at Rome. Those who find three letters in our Philippians 
divide 3:2 — 4:9 from 4:10-20, making this last the final 
letter and placing 3:2 — 4:9 earlier in the correspondence. 
While the analysis of Philippians is less convincing than is that 
of Romans and II Corinthians, it deserves serious considera- 
tion, especially in view of the fact that Polycarp early in the 
second century speaks of Paul's ''letters" to the Philippians 
and advises the Philippians to consult them. 

The editing of the Pauline letters. — The question of the 
editorial work in the Pauline letters is involved with that of 
the earhest collection of them, and that properly belongs to 
the history of the canon. It is enough here to say that many 
things point to Ephesus as the place of the making of that 
collection, and the time was probably well within the first 
century. The combining of two or three letters into a single 
one was very probably a part of the editorial work incident 



1 88 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

to this larger task of putting in circulation a collection of 
Paul's letters for Christian use. 

The specific occasion of the Pauline letters. — But it ought 
not to be inferred from the foregoing list of doubts and 
questions concerning the Pauline authorship or the integrity 
of the several letters ascribed to Paul in the New Testament 
that these are the only questions or the most important ones 
with which we have to deal in this part of our subject. In fact, 
they are all preliminary to discovering under what circum- 
stances and to meet what situation each of these letters, or 
their several component letters, were produced. It is the 
answer to this question, largely to be discovered from the 
internal evidence of the letter itself, or from this, combined 
with the evidence of other letters and the Book of Acts, that 
will enable us to set each writing in its proper place in the his- 
tory, and so help us to understand its purpose and its course 
of thought. To decide that a letter ascribed to Paul is made 
up of two or more letters of his, or is not his at all, is not to 
deprive it of interest or value for us, but only requires that we 
date it and place it where it really belongs. To do this may 
increase both its interest and its value. 

To decide, or even to discuss at length, the date, place, 
and occasion of each of the letters named above would require 
more space than can be given in this book. But it is a very 
important part of the task of the student of the New Testa- 
ment. In undertaking it he must make the fullest possible 
use of the evidence afforded by the books themselves, of 
ancient external evidence, and of the results of modern study. 
To the more thorough study of the books of the New Testa- 
ment from this point of view we owe no small part of the 
progress of the last century in the understanding of their 
thought and of the origin of Christianity. 

The earliest gospels. — The letters of Paul were written 
to serve special immediate needs of individuals, churches, 
or groups of churches. They were not intended as permanent 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 189 

contributions to literature. The earliest Christians had 
no thought of producing a religious literature; they were 
wholly concerned with an inward spiritual experience and the 
expectation of the early return of Jesus to the earth to usher 
in the messianic era. They were loyal to what the spirit of 
Jesus said to their hearts and to what Jesus in his earthly 
ministry had taught. This last along with some brief account 
of Jesus' niinistry and doings Christians learned from the oral 
instruction of the missionaries through whom they had been 
converted. This was the way in which the Corinthians, 
for example, learned of the Lord's Supper and the Resur- 
rection. Paul and every successful missionary taught his 
converts the ''traditions," as Paul calls them, I Cor. 11:2, 23; 
15:3. In this way some short compend of the words and 
deeds of Jesus was known among the churches, and ther6 was 
at first no thought of writing an account of his teaching or 
ministry, much less his life. 

The Synoptic Gospels. — Of the score of gospels which 
were written by 200 a.d. the four gospels which are included 
in the New Testament contain probably the most valuable 
and trustworthy material. Three of these four resemble 
one another so strikingly in chronology, order of events, and 
details of expression that students have long been accustomed 
to group them together under the name Synoptic Gospels. 
Their resemblances are so close as to prove that these gospels 
are dependent on one another or on some common documentary 
source. Along with these resemblances they exhibit certain 
striking differences which greatly compHcate the problem 
of their relationship. It is this combination of agreement 
and difference that gives rise to what is called the synoptic 
problem. 

The minute comparison of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, 
and Luke, section by section and even phrase by phrase, 
clearly shows that the writers of Matthew and Luke had the 
Gospel of Mark and made large use of it in producing their 



I go GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

gospels. This is especially true of Matthew, into which fifteen- 
sixteenths of the verses of Mark have been taken over. 
The question arises whether Mark was known to these evangel- 
ists in the form in which we have it or in some more primitive 
form, the so-called original Mark. It is reasonably clear 
that when the writer of Matthew used Mark it had not lost 
its original conclusion, but that in other respects it was known 
to him in substantially the form in which it is known to us. 

Origin of Mark. — Tradition explains the origin of the 
Gospel of Mark as due to the effort of Mark to preserve for 
the Roman church and other churches Peter's recollections 
of the ministry and words of Jesus as Mark had learned them 
in his capacity of interpreter to Peter in Peter's latter days. 
The idea that Peter was the authority for a gospel record was 
familiar in the first half of the second century, as Papias, 
Justin, and the II Peter (1:15) indicate. It seems probable, 
therefore, that Mark was written soon after the death of 
Peter, which occurred in 64 A. d. If we examine the Gospel of 
Mark with reference to the probability of such an origin, it 
proves to exhibit such an emphasis upon the fall of Jerusalem 
as we should expect in the years of the Jewish War, 66-70 a.d., 
and its generally primitive character and freedom from edi- 
torial retouching make it very likely that it was composed 
during the Jewish War much in the way Papias describes. 
There is little question that Mark's collection of Peter's 
recollections is embodied in our Mark. The chief critical 
question is whether the two documents are identical or 
the recollections only served as one source toward the com- 
position of our Mark. But the fact that our Mark is so 
completely taken over into Matthew is opposed to this latter 
alternative, and certain obscurities and ambiguities in Mark's 
narrative confirm the impression that it is not the work of an 
editorial reviser. 

There is indeed little to set against the testimony of 
tradition that Mark wrote this earliest of gospels. The tra- 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 191 

ditional account of its purpose, too, fits very well with the 
character of the work. While the writer believes Jesus to be 
the Messiah, he does not put that statement into the mouth 
of Jesus, but reports him as designating himself the Son of 
Man. The writer seems more concerned to reproduce faith- 
fully the materials at his disposal than to establish a theo- 
logical interpretation of Jesus. His narrative, while it makes 
high claims for Jesus, includes many homely touches which 
later evangelists preferred to leave out. It is, in short, an 
informal and unambitious narrative, with no strongly defined 
apologetic purpose such as the Gospels of Matthew and John 
so clearly show. 

Two-document theory. — Synoptic study has shown that 
Matthew and Luke are based upon Mark. But the more 
difficult part of the synoptic problem remains. How shall 
we explain the occurrence in Matthew and Luke of common 
material not derivable from Mark? The obvious answer is, 
both derived it from a second source possessed by both. This 
second common source was for a long time identified with the 
Logia or Sayings of Jesus composed, according to the testimony 
of Papias, by the apostle Matthew in the Aramaic language. 
But the fact that that document is described as existing in 
Aramaic while the resemblances it would have to explain are 
often in the details of Greek expression, and the further fact 
that it is said to have consisted of sayings while the resem- 
blances which the theory requires it to explain are often in 
narrative, have led most synoptic scholars in recent years to 
give up the effort to identify the second source of Matthew 
and Luke with the Logia of Matthew. 

The two-document theory, as it is called, suffers decidedly 
when its second document ceases to be identified with the 
Logia, and becomes a mere critical conjecture, and the 
question arises. Why is it necessary to explain the non- 
Markan resemblances of Matthew and Luke by one con- 
jectural document instead of more ? The answer is at once 



192 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

made, because it is reasonable to postulate no more con- 
jectural documents than are required to account for the facts. 
But the theory necessitates assigning to one document ma- 
terial of widely different types and interests, and it is a some- 
what striking fact that the non-Markan material shared by 
Matthew and Luke, while scattered all through Matthew, 
is in Luke for the most part confined to two considerable 
sections. These sections are further remarkable for the 
almost total absence from them of any Markan material, and 
they have long been spoken of by students of Luke as the 
Small and the Great Interpolations, because they may be 
viewed as bodies of material interpolated by Luke in the 
text of Mark, which he was clearly making the basis of his 
gospel. These sections, Luke 6:20 — 8:3 and 9:51 — 18:14, 
may very probably have been documents which Luke char- 
acteristically inserted en bloc while Matthew, with his ana- 
lytical and topical way of working, took from them what he 
wished to use and placed it where he saw fit. To the former 
of these source-sections should probably be assigned also 
Luke 3:7-15, 17, 18; 4:26-30; 5:1-11; and to the latter 
19:1-28. 

Three-document theory. — This would explain the resem- 
blances of Matthew and Luke by a three-document theory, 
that is, by the use by both of three documents — Mark, and 
the two just outlined. The writers of Matthew and Luke 
had each of them, in addition to these, special sources, per- 
haps documentary. Each had his own peculiar source for 
his account of the infancy of Jesus, and it is not improbable 
that the writer of Matthew may have had the Sayings of 
Matthew, and so the name of that apostle came to be con- 
nected with that gospel. 

Authorship of Matthew and Luke. — This introduces the 
question of the authorship of these gospels. Of the author 
of the Gospel of Matthew nothing is definitely known. 
The statements of ancient writers are probably due to the 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 193 

incorporation into our Matthew of the Sayings of Matthew 
above referred to. The gospel itself is anonymous and gives 
no definite evidence as to its writer. If it were the work of an 
apostle or any other eyewitness, it is very difficult to under- 
stand its dependence upon Mark. Its earliest name seems 
to have been simply ''The Gospel," and it is possible that it 
was the first work of Christian literature to go by this 
name. The Gospel of Luke, on the other hand, while it no- 
where mentions its author by name, is not quite anonymous 
since the individual to whom it was addressed or dedicated 
would naturally have known who was addressing htm in the 
preface. Nor is there in this case any reason to doubt that 
such an author as Paul's friend Luke might very naturally 
have used written sources and oral tradition in making up his 
narrative. There is, in short, much more to be said for the 
Lukan authorship of the Gospel of Luke than for the assign- 
ment of apostolic authorship to Matthew. The difficulties 
with it will be pointed out in connection with its sequel, the 
Acts. 

We have seen that the Gospel of Mark was written in the 
effort to preserve the recollections of Peter for the edification 
and instruction of the churches. What occasioned the writing 
of Matthew ? A close examination of it suggests that 
a variety of motives actuated the writer. He was in part 
anxious to explain to his Christian brethren the continuity of 
the Christian movement with Judaism, upon which the recent 
fall of Jerusalem had thrown what he considered new and 
important light. He wished also to harmonize and unify 
the various writiiigs on the ministry and teaching of Jesus 
which were so hkely to confuse the ordinary man. Probably 
Mark had shown how helpful in the Hfe of the churches even 
so moderate and limited a gospel could be. Some light is 
thrown upon the place of origin of Matthew by the fact that 
it is first clearly reflected in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, 
early in the second century, and that the kind of circle, mainly 



194 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Jewish Christian, for which it was evidently intended would 
be most likely to be found there, in the years just following 
the fall of Jerusalem. To that place and period it is probable 
the Gospel of Matthew is to be referred. 

The Acts. — Closely related to the Gospel of Luke, and so 
to the synoptic problem, is the Book of Acts, written by the 
same author and presumably upon principles and methods 
similar to those which governed the writing of Luke's Gospel. 
The problem of Acts relates to its authorship and trust- 
worthiness. All agree that Luke and Acts are from the same 
hand, and, further, that the writer of the we-sections (Acts 
16:10-18; 20:5-16; 21:1-18; 27:1 — 28:16) was a com- 
panion of Paul and an eyewitness of what he reports in the 
first person. But was the we-diarist Luke? Much more 
important, was he the author of the whole Book of Acts ? 
Furthermore, how near was he in writing to the events which 
he records ? Had he read the Antiquities of Josephus, pub- 
lished in the thirteenth year of Domitian, 93-94 a.d. ? And 
what was the character and worth of the sources used by the 
Christian historian in the earlier part of his work? All 
these matters are of essential importance to the interpretation 
of Acts and the reconstruction of early Christian history. 
On the whole, there is not sufficient evidence to make it 
probable that the writer of Luke- Acts used Josephus' work, 
and it seems reasonable to conclude that the we-diarist 
is identical with the author who speaks in the first person in 
Acts I : I and in Luke 1:3. 

The reign of Domitian introduced the Christian movement 
to a new situation. The increased emphasis upon emperor- 
worship which marked that reign involved Christians in 
different parts of the Empire in suspicion, condemnation, and 
persecution. This situation is the background of three books 
of the New Testament. 

Revelation. — The Revelation is the work of John, a 
Christian prophet of Asia, who was imprisoned for his Chris- 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 195 

tian profession, and while in prison wrote a series of letters 
and visions to fortify his brethren in the Asian churches against 
the temptation to apostatize. As early as the time of Justin 
{ca. 150 A.D.) this John was identified with the apostle John, 
but there is nothing in the Revelation to suggest this. Yet 
it was probably this idea that afterward kept the Revelation 
of John in the New Testament of the Western church, when 
the other apocalypses were dropped from Christian Scripture. 

A more serious problem in the study of the Revelation 
is that of its dependence upon earlier apocalyptic writings. 
That its general form was suggested by Jewish apocalyptic 
works such as Daniel and Enoch goes without saying. But 
there are certain parts of it which seem to reflect an earHer 
time than D omi tian' s,_ and it is at least possible that the book 
as we know it is based upon an earlier apocalypse, perhaps of 
the period of the Jewish War. 

Hebrews. — Another work of Domitian's time is the so- 
called Epistle to the Hebrews. The anonymity of this letter 
has occasioned much futile conjecture as to the identity of its 
author, beginning with the unfortunate guess of Pantaenus 
that it was from the hand of Paul. It is more important 
to ascertain to whom it was written and for what purpose. 
Its strongly Jewish color and the name by which it has so 
long been known have led many scholars to the view that 
it was written for Jewish Christians in Palestine and designed 
to deter them from lapsing into Judaism. Over against this 
stands the fact that such a body could hardly be addressed in 
Greek, and that the description the writer gives of the church 
to which he is writing is quite inappropriate to the Jerusalem 
church or any Palestinian church of which we know, while the 
Judaism of which the writer speaks is always that of the wilder- 
ness and the tabernacle, never that of Jerusalem and the 
temple. On the other hand, the picture given of the church 
addressed, with its virtues and faults and its peculiar history, 
fits remarkably well upon the Roman church in the time of 



196 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Domitian, and the salutations of ''those from Italy" (13:24) 
point in the same direction. The problem is a difficult one, 
but it is decidedly probable that the letter was addressed 
to Roman Christians whom the persecution of Domitian 
exposed to the danger of discouragement and apostasy. 

/ Peter. — A third document from Domitian's persecution 
may serve to bind these two together. I Peter in its opening 
words claims to be the work of the apostle Peter, but the situa- 
tion it reflects can hardly be earlier than the time of Domitian, 
for the followers of Christ are being persecuted for the name 
of Christ and as Christians (4:14, 16). The letter is written 
from Rome, which is spoken of as Babylon, as in the Revela- 
tion, and is addressed to the Christians of the provinces of 
Asia Minor who are undergoing persecution. But why was 
it given the name of Peter ? It may have been the work of a 
Roman presbyter of that name (5:1) who was afterward 
identified with the apostle Peter, as the John of the Revelation 
was later identified with the apostle. Or the explanation may 
lie in the fact that a variety of works were put forth early in 
the second century under the name of Peter and were widely 
accepted as genuine. 

The Gospel of John. — The Johannine problem in its 
larger aspects includes the authorship of all the five writings 
ascribed by Christian tradition to the apostle John. The 
main interest of it centers about the Gospel of John which, 
while anonymous^ in a later epilogue, chap. 21, distinctly 
claims the apostle John as its voucher. When compared with 
the synoptic representation, however, the Johannine is found 
to differ in certain vital respects. The Jesus of the Synoptists, 
reticent about himself and his office, gives way to a divine 
Christ promptly and boldly asserting his pre-existence and 
messiahship. The synoptic order of narrative, disrupted at 
many points, is sometimes even inverted. The boldly apoca- 
lyptic eschatological teaching of Jesus reported by the Synop- 
tists gives way to a spiritualized eschatology, and the Jewish 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 197 

forms of thought in which the Synoptists cast their message 
are replaced by more Hellenized and universal ones. 

It is evidently true that if the author of this gospel was a 
personal follower of Jesus, still more if he was his confidential 
disciple, the Fourth Gospel has substantial claims to be con- 
sidered the authoritative formulation of Jesus' thought and 
teaching. But apostolic authorship is not the most vital point 
of the Johannine problen. The point is rather the historical 
truth of the picture of Jesus and his teaching which it contains. 
Is this or is the synoptic representation the true one ? Are 
both true, the synoptic presenting the public external aspect 
of Jesus' life and teaching, the Johannine the intimate esoteric 
explanation of himself which he made to his disciples ? Or 
is the Fourth Gospel the end-of-the-century reinterpretation 
of Jesus in the more universal terms of Greek thinking, in 
accord with the wider horizons and new streams of thought 
which the success of the gentile mission had brought with it, 
and colored with the Hellenic thought of its time, somewhat 
as the Synoptic Gospels are colored with the Jejvish ideas of 
theirs ? 

But if this be the solution of the Johannine problem, it 
leaves some elements still to be explained. What is the his- 
torical value of the specific narratives it preserves ? What 
genuine elements of Jesus' teaching, wanting in the Synoptists, 
has it preserved ? How far does its chronology of Jesus' 
ministry soundly correct that of the Synoptists ? Is its 
spiritualization of synoptic eschatology a bold effort to 
assimilate apocalyptic crudities to Greek thinking on the 
part of a writer who had undertaken to transplant Christianity 
from Jewish soil to Greek, or a real sounding of the profound 
thought of Jesus ? 

/, //, /// John. — Of the three Johannine letters, the 
first is so like the Gospel of John in tone and ideas that it 
might almost be a stray leaf from it, and seems clearly to have 
come from the same hand with it. The second and third are 



igS GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

more evidently letters, one to a church, the other to a certain 
Gaius, from one who calls himself '^ the Elder," and deals with a 
dispute over views and authority which has the ring of the 
early second century. They may well be from the hand which 
wrote the Gospel and I John, and suggest that 'Hhe Elder" 
may be that Elder John of whom Papias speaks. This has 
led some to the conclusion that the Gospel of John embodies 
traditional materials from the apostle John recast and inter- 
preted by John the Elder. In both Gospel and letters is 
reflected the docetic controversy of the beginning of the second 
century. 

Later epistles: James. — There remain three so-called epistles 
bearing the names of James, Peter, and Jude. The first of these 
is quite clearly a Christian sermon later published among the 
churches under the name of James, who afterward came to be 
identified with James of Jerusalem, the brother of Jesus. It 
is an interesting example of early Christian preaching, but it 
is not possible to determine who the James whose name it 
bears was. 

Jude and II Peter. — The Epistle of Jude is directed 
against the docetic thinkers who made of Jesus so fantastic 
and unreal a figure. Its author is represented to have been a 
brother of James and so of Jesus. The letter is a vehement 
denunciation of the Docetists and shows a canonical regard 
for Jewish works hke the Assumption of Moses and the 
Book of Enoch. The substance of this little document is 
closely paralleled in II Peter, and the question arises how this 
is to be explained. Is Jude a condensation of II Peter, or is 
II Peter an expansion of Jude, or are both based upon some 
other document ? II Peter is directed against certain persons 
who were denying the second coming of Christ, and it seems 
most probable that the writer simply appropriated to this 
purpose the denunciation which in Jude is directed at the 
Docetists. II Peter is remarkable in the number of New 
Testament bodis known to its writer ; he speaks of a collection 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 199 

of Paul's letters, alludes to I Peter and the Gospel of Mark, 
quotes the Gospels of Matthew and of John, and reproduces 
most of the contents of Jude. II Peter is therefore m all proba- 
bility the latest of the New Testament books. But its writer 
fully intends it to be understood as the work of Peter and seeks 
to identify himself in a variety of ways with the apostle. That 
such a course was not unusual in the Christian literature of 
the second century has already been pointed out, and intel- 
ligent Christian opinion in antiquity came very slowly and 
reluctantly to the acceptance of II Peter as apostolic. 

Literature. — i. Brief works in English on all the books of the New 
Testament: B. W, Bacon, An Introduction to the New Testament (New 
York: Macmillan, 1900); Hermann v. Soden, The History of Early Chris- 
tian Literature (New York: Putnam, 1906); A. S. Peake, Critical 
Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Scribner, 19 10); E. J. 
Goodspeed, The Story of the New Testament (Chicago : The University of 
Chicago Press, 19 16), a brief presentation for the general reader of the 
situations out of which the several New Testament books arose and the 
way in which they met these situations. 

2. Fuller works covering all -the books of the New Testament: 
B. Weiss, Lehrbuch der Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 3d ed. (Berlin: 
Hertz, 1897) ; A Manual of Introduction to the New Testament, 2 vols. 
(New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1889), a translation of a previous edi- 
tion of the above; H. Holtzmann, Lehrbuch der historisch-kritischen 
Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 3d ed. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1892); 
A. Jiilicher, Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 6th ed. (Tubingen: 
Mohr, 19 1 3); Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Putnam, 
1904), a translation of an earlier edition of the above, a valuable intro- 
duction, representing liberal but not extreme views, with fewer technical 
details than MofEatt furnishes; T. Zahn, Introduction to the New Testa- 
ment, 3 vols. (New York: Scribner, 1909); C. R. Gregory, Einleitung in 
das Neue Testament (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909); James Moffatt, Intro- 
duction to the Literature of the New Testament (New York: Scribner, 191 1), 
the most complete volume for the well-equipped student. 

3. Introductions to particular books or groups of books: V. H. 
Stanton, The Gospels as Historical Documents, 2 vols. (New York: 
Putnam, 1904); E. D. Burton, A Short Introduction to the Gospels 
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1904); Principles of Liter- 
ary Criticism and the Synoptic Problem (Chicago: The University of 



200 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Chicago Press, 1904); J. Wellhausen, Einleitung in die drei ersten 
Evangelien (Berlin: Reimer, 1905); A, Harnack, The Sayings of Jesus 
(New York: Putnam, 1908); William Sanday (editor), Studies in the 
Synoptic Problem (Oxford, 19 11); The Criticism of the Fourth Gospel 
(New York: Scribner, 1905); James Drummond, The Character and 
Authorship of the Fourth Gospel (London: Williams & Norgate, 1903); 
E. F. Scott, The Fourth Gospel: Its Purpose and Theology (Edinburgh: 
Clark, 1906); H. H. Wendt, The Gospel according to St. John (N-ew 
York: Scribner, 1902); Robert Scott, The Pauline Epistles (New York: 
Scribner, 1909); F. Godet, Introduction to the New Testament. The 
Pauline Epistles (Edinburgh: Clark, 1899); Lake, The Earlier Epistles 
of St. Paul, 2ded. (London: Rivington, 19 14). 

4. The acquisition of the language of the New Testa- 
ment. — What has already been said respecting the nature of the 
interpretative process makes it at once evident that the inter- 
preter must be acquainted with the language in which the htera- 
ture which he is interpreting is written. Any language is a 
system of arbitrary symbols for ideas. There is no necessary, 
in the majority of cases there is not even a natural, relation be- 
tween the subject described or the idea expressed by a word and 
that word itself. This, which is obviously true, is made more 
evident by the fact that there are Hterally thousands of human 
languages. In other words, men have created thousands 
of systems, each of which, differing from every other one, 
is used for the symbolizing of human thoughts. Not only so, 
but there are as many systems of expressing those differentia- 
tions of thought which are indicated by the inflections and 
syntactical relations of words as there are for the differences 
of thought expressed by different words. These facts make 
it necessary that the interpreter of any writer or speaker shall 
be acquainted with that particular system of symbols— 
that is, that particular language — -in which the author whom 
he is interpreting writes or speaks. The man of but one 
language may be scarcely aware of this fact, but the German 
who desires to understand a Greek or the Frenchman who 
wishes to understand a Chinese quickly discovers it. 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 201 

But it is not only the man who desires to interpret a 
different language from his own who is compelled to make a 
study of the language. There are 60,000 characters in the 
Chinese language, each of which represents a different idea. 
A fairly well-educated man knows but 2,000 of these. To 
acquire a knowledge of the other 58,000 is no small task. 
It is less obvious but equally true that no user of the English 
language knows all the meanings of all the words of that 
language, and the English student of the English Bible does 
not therefore escape the necessity of being a diligent student 
of the language of the Bible. To learn Greek may be more 
difficult for him than to learn English. But when Greek has 
been once acquired, he may learn the ideas represented by the 
New Testament words more easily, and certainly more 
exactly, through the medium of the Greek than through that 
of the English. 

But not all the meaning of the word is conveyed by 
its stem or body. The terminations show whether it refers 
to one object or many, whether it denotes the person or thing 
of which the sentence affirms something, or one who is affected 
by the action spoken of in the predicate. These and many 
other varieties of relations between things spoken of are 
expressed by the inflections of words. 

Out of this double fact that ideas are expressed by words 
and that words themselves take on different forms to express 
certain variations of the idea for which they stand arises 
the necessity for lexic'ography and grammar. 

a) Lexicography. — This is the process by which one dis- 
covers and formulates the meanings of words, i.e., the idea 
or ideas for the expression of which a given word may be 
employed. Had each word but one meaning and were there 
for each idea a separate word, this process would be relatively 
simple and might be compared to a mere table of equivalents 
of Roman and Arabic figures. In fact, however, in every 
language most words have various meanings and many ideas 



202 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

can be expressed by different words. Furthermore, behind 
this variety of usage there Hes in all cases a historical process, 
in some cases of centuries of extent. Words which have in one 
period a certain meaning have in a later period come to have a 
very different meaning; sometimes the latter is almost the 
exact opposite of the former. The task of the lexicographer is 
therefore a strictly historical one. His task is to determine 
what meaning, or what various meanings, the writers of a 
given period were accustomed to express by the use of a given 
word. To discover this, it is often necessary not only to 
examine the extant literature which has come down to us from 
the period in question, but to trace the development of the 
usage through the previous periods in the history of the lan- 
guage. One can, for example, scarcely decide what the word 
''lord" means in the New Testament without an extended 
investigation of its usage both by Hebrew and by Greek 
writers; and the same is true of many other words, such as 
''soul," "spirit," "holiness," "repentance." 

Literature. — Though they give some attention to New Testament 
usage, the standard lexicons of the Greek language exhibit this usage 
so inadequately as to make them insufficient for the purpose of the New 
Testament student. Yet because it shows the New Testament usage 
in relation to the general use of words in Greek Kterature at large, the 
student will often have occasion to consult Liddell and Scott, A Greek 
Lexicon, 8th ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891). But of far more 
use for the student of New Testament Greek is J. H. Thayer, A Greek- 
English Lexicon of the New Testament: being Grimm's edition of 
Wilke's Clavis Novi Testamenti, translated, revised, and enlarged, cor- 
rected edition (New York: Harper, 1889); Erwin Preuschen, Vollstdndiges 
griechisch-deutsches Handworterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testa- 
ments und der Uhrigen Urchristlichen Litteratur (Giessen: Topelmann, 
1 9 10). The testimony of the Greek papyri is taken account of in later 
lexical works: F. Zorell, Novi Testamenti Lexicon Graecum (Paris, 
Lethielleux, 191 1); H. Eberling, Griechisch-deutsches Worterhuch zum 
Neuen Testamente (Leipzig, Hahn, 1913); Moulton and Milligan, The 
Vocabulary of the Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and Other 
Non-Literary Sources (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 19 14) (in progress: 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 203 

Parts I, II, a-S) . A later work than Thayer, but on the whole a less useful 
one, is Hermann Cremer, BiUisch-theologisches Worterbuch zum Neuen 
Testament, gth. ed. (Gotha: Perthes, 1902); Bihlico-Theological Lexicon 
of New Testament Greek (Edinburgh and New York, 1880-86), trans- 
lation of the second edition of above work, with supplement based 
on the fifth edition. It consists of historical-lexicographical studies of 
the most important New Testament words, and is a valuable supplement 
to Thayer, useful for extended study rather than ready reference. 

For purposes of independent study of New Testament words one 
needs concordances, the best being Moulton and Geden, Concordance of 
New Testament Words (New York: Scribner, 1897); C. H. Bruder, 
Concordantiae Novi Testamenti, 7th ed. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und 
Ruprecht, 19 13); Hatch and Redpath, Concordance to the Septuagint and 
Other Greek Versions of the Old Testament, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon 
Press, 1897). 

For a fuller discussion of the nature of lexicographical study as 
applied to New Testament words see E. D. Burton, "The Study of New 
Testament Words," Old and New Testament Student, XII (1891), 135-47. 

For examples of special studies see, besides Cremer, mentioned above, 
A. Deissmann, Bible Studies, 2d ed. (Edinburgh: Clark, 1903); G. Dal- 
man. The Words of Jesus (Edinburgh: Clark, 1902); E. F. Thompson, 
The Words Meravoeo) and Mera/xe'Aet (Chicago: The University of 
Chicago Press, 1908); E. D. Burton, "Spirit, Soul and Flesh," a series 
of articles in the American Journal of Theology, XVil (October, 1913), 
563-98; XVIII (January, 1914), 59-80; (July, 1914), 395-414; (October, 
1914), 571-99; XX (July, 1916), 390-413- 

h) Grammar. — ^What the lexicographer does in relation 
to the body or stem of a word, the grammarian does in rela- 
tion to the variations of meaning conveyed by the inflection 
of the word, and in general in respect to the relations of words 
in sentences. It is his task to arrange the various word-forms 
in an orderly scheme and to determine what various shades 
of ideas are expressed by these variations. What the nomina- 
tive case signifies, or the dative, what variation of idea is 
conveyed by the use of the present tense or the past, by the 
subjunctive mood or the. optative, how sentences are built 
and what ideas are expressed by the structure of sentences^ 
with all these and like questions the grammarian deals. 
It is obvious on the one hand that all these are, like those of 



204 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

the lexicographer, purely questions of history, pertaining to 
the habits of men in respect to the use of words in a given 
period, and, on the other, that the answers to them are indis- 
pensable to the processes of interpretation. 

Literature. — In the field of grammar, even more than in that of 
lexicography, the New Testament student will have occasion to consult 
the standard grammars of the Greek language: W. W. Goodwin, A Greek 
Grammar (Boston: Ginn, 1895); Hadley- Allen, A Greek Grammar for 
Schools and Colleges (New York: Appleton, 1889); W. W. Goodwin, 
Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb (Boston: Ginn, 1890); 
Carl Brugmann, Griechische Grammatik, 4th ed. (Miinchen: Beck, 19 13). 

For the Greek of the New Testament in particular, which, however, 
it is even more clear than formerly, used in general the forms and followed 
the syntax of the common Greek of the period, see A. Buttmann, A 
Grammar of the New Testament Greek, translated by J. H. Thayer 
(Andover: Draper, 1891); G. B. Winer, A Treatise on the Grammar of 
New Testament Greek, translated by W. F. Moulton, 3d ed. (Edinburgh, 
1882); F. Blass, Grammar of New Testament Greek, 2d ed. (New York, 
1905); Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch, 4th ed., edited 
by Albert Delbrunner (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1913), 
being a revised edition of the original of the preceding; E. D. Burton, 
Syntax of the Moods and Tenses in New Testament Greek, 6th ed. (Chicago: 
The University of Chicago Press, 1913) (unchanged from 3d ed., 1898); 
J. H. Moulton, A Grammar of New Testament Greek, Vol. I, Prolegomena, 
3d ed. (Edinburgh: Clark, 1908); A. T. Robertson, A Short Grammar 
of the Greek New Testament (New York: Armstrong, 1909); L. Rader- 
macher, Handbuch zum Neuen Testament, Bd. I, Neutestamentliche 
Grammatik (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 1); A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of 
the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research (New York: 
Hodder & Stoughton, 1914), an exhaustive work making much use of the 
results of comparative philology and quoting extensively from recent 
writers. 

5. The recovery of the text. — a) What is textual criti- 
cism? — To understand what a man has said, it is essential 
to know what he said. If a precise understanding of the 
meaning is wanted or if he has dealt with matters of impor- 
tance, it is desirable to know exactly what he said. If he 
wrote his words instead of merely speaking them, we can 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 205 

reach certainty as to what he wrote by consulting his auto- 
graph manuscript, as in the case of Lincoln's Gettysburg 
address. In the case of ancient writers whose original manu- 
scripts, autograph or dictated, have been lost, we must 
depend upon copies made from them or secondary copies made 
from these in turn or from copies even further removed from 
the originals. 

But it is very difficult to copy even a few pages with 
absolute accuracy, and different copies of ancient works 
naturally differ from one another in many particulars. Which 
is right ? Probably no one of them is entirely so. One may 
preserve some particulars correctly, another others. Com- 
parison and scrutiny are necessary to decide which copy is 
probably closer to the original at the points in which the copies 
disagree. This is textual criticism. 

In some cases an ancient work has come down to us in a 
single copy made long after the original work was written. 
It is evident that it matters very little how many years have 
passed between the writing of the original work and the 
making of this particular copy, but very much how many 
copies have intervened, for with every copying of the text 
a new opportunity is given for errors to creep in. When an 
ancient work has been preserved in but a single copy, the 
effort to recover the precise text of the lost original must 
take the form of conjecture; that is, wherever the text is not 
smooth or consistent, or does not yield an intelligible sense, the 
scholar who is trying to recover the original text must try 
to guess what the writer actually wrote from what his copyists 
have represented him as writing. More can often be done 
in this direction than might seem probable, but at best this 
method is dangerous even in the ablest hands and should 
always be used sparingly and with caution. 

b) The problem of the New Testament text. — -But the New 
Testament is preserved not in one manuscript only or a 
few, but in hundreds and even thousands, in a greater number 



2o6, GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

indeed than any other work of Hterature. Few of these 
contain all the New Testament. It was usual to copy the 
Gospels together, the epistles of Paul together, and so on. 
But not only are there hundreds of such manuscripts of the 
original Greek text, but in the early centuries the New 
Testament was translated into Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Arabic, 
Armenian, Ethiopic, Persian, Gothic, and other languages, and 
the manuscripts of some of these versions are very numerous. 
The textual materials for New Testament study are in fact 
so abundant as to be really overwhelming. 

Anyone who undertakes to study the New Testament 
seriously in English finds it presented to him in different 
textual forms. The Authorized Version differs materially 
from the Revised Version of 1881, and that in turn often 
reads differently from the American Revision. There are 
besides numerous lesser translations. Which is right? 

The Authorized Version of 161 1, like the series of English 
versions that had preceded it, beginning with 1525, was 
based on the early printed editions. In 15 14 the Greek New 
Testament was first printed at Alcala in Spain, but before it 
was published Erasmus in 15 16 issued his edition, and many 
editions followed these. For all of these the text was drawn 
from late manuscripts of the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, 
which differed relatively Httle from one another. 

But in the years that followed, manuscripts of much 
greater age and of very different textual quahty came one 
by one to light. In 1581 Theodore de Beze gave to the 
University of Cambridge his famous manuscript, called after 
him the Codex Bezae. In 1628 the patriarch of Constanti- 
nople gave to the king of England the Codex Alexandrinus. 
New studies revealed the worth of the ancient Codex Vati- 
canus, the Paris Codex of Ephrem was deciphered, and Tisch- 
endorf discovered at Mount Sinai the Codex Sinai ticus. Both 
Vaticanus and Sinaiticus date from the fourth century, 
and they are generally considered our best New Testament 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 207 

manuscripts. The more ancient versions, first printed in 
the sixteenth and the seventeeth centuries, in the nine- 
teenth began to be critically examined and the materials 
for the study of the New Testament text were thus greatly 
increased. 

c) Better textual materials. — This growing mass of materials 
led to improved methods of investigation. Scholars had at 
first been content to reprint the prevailing sixteenth-century 
text, the Received Text, as it was called, and to put any 
valuable variants from it which the study of freshly discov- 
ered manuscripts yielded, into footnotes. But the really 
superior readings at length became so numerous that the true 
text was often to be found in the margin instead of in the 
column above. The editors of the Greek text had therefore 
to revise the Received Text. They did this at first modestly 
and sparingly, but at length grew bolder and broke away 
from it altogether, basing their text no longer on the Received 
Text, but wholly upon the ancient manuscripts, from the 
fourth to the tenth centuries, which had come to light. It 
was the development of this critical ancient text, differing 
widely from that on which the Authorized Version had been 
based, that necessitated the Revision of 1881. 

d) Types of New Testament text. — Yet these ancient 
manuscripts do not agree among themselves. Some of 
them exhibit the same kind of text that we find in the sermons 
of John Chrysostom, at the end of the fourth century. 
Quotations such as he and other Christian Fathers make from 
the New Testament are in fact among the most important aids 
t® the study of the history of the text, because we can fix 
their dates and places of abode as we cannot those of most 
manuscripts. It was this text of Chrysostom's, which he had 
probably learned at Antioch, which prevailed in the Middle 
Ages and came down to modern times as the Received Text. 
Other early manuscripts, like the Codex Bezae and parts of 
the Freer and Koridethi Gospels, show a very different text, 



2o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

with additions, omissions, and occasional substitutions, some- 
times of a very striking character. This erratic text has 
often the support of very early Christian writers, who seem 
to quote the New Testament in this form. Other manuscripts 
again preserve a text less picturesque than this and at many 
points less full and smooth than that of Chrysostom. Some 
would distinguish a fourth type of text differing from this last 
only in its greater smoothness and finish. How did these text- 
ual types come into existence ? What are their relations to one 
another? Which of them is nearest to the original text? 
And how can the original text be reached through them? 
These are the questions which textual study seeks to answer. 
e) Method of textual criticism. — In doing this it is helpful 
to remember that changes made in copying are not all invol- 
untary; they are often intentional. We do not understand 
what lies before us to be copied, and so we naturally alter 
it to make sense. This alteration may possibly restore the 
original text where an earlier scribe had corrupted it, but 
it is quite as hkely to corrupt the text or to make a previous 
corruption worse. With all three forms of such a passage 
before us it would not be difficult to discover which was the 
original and which the secondary reading. By this compari- 
son of rival readings we can in fact often determine which is 
the parent reading. Some manuscripts prove upon examina- 
tion to contain a large proportion of such readings, and we 
conclude that they represent a comparatively pure text. 
We infer that in other readings less demonstrably original 
they are probably right. When such a manuscript is found 
to agree in numerous particulars with another manuscript 
which has on similar grounds established its claims to accu- 
racy, the group thus formed carries great weight. If others 
can be added to the group, their testimony is further strength- 
ened. In such ways, by the comparison of series of rival 
readings, by the discovery of superior readings throughout a 
manuscript, by the study of groups of kindred manuscripts, and 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 209 

by distinguishing parent manuscripts from their descendents, 
something Hke certainty in textual study can be attained. 

Literature. — ^Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek, 2 vols. 
(London: Macmillan, 1881, Vol. II, revised ed. 1896). Vol. I presents 
the best Greek text of the New Testament that criticism has yet pro- 
duced; Vol. II, the best estimate of textual materials and the best 
statement as to the theory of textual history and the method of textual 
study. F. G. Kenyon, Handbook to the Textual Criticism a/" the New 
Testament, 2d ed. (London: Macmillan, 19 12), is an excellent compre- 
hensive manual for the use of students. C. R. Gregory, Textkritik des 
Neuen Testamentes, 3 vols. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1900-1909), is especially 
valuable for its full descriptions of manuscripts and other textual ma- 
terials. C. R. Gregory, The Canon and Text of the New Testament (New 
York: Scribner, 1907), furnishes a popular treatment dealing especially 
with the materials of textual criticism, manuscripts, versions, and 
editions. C. R. Gregory, Die griechischen Handschriften des Neuen 
Testaments (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1908), embodies an improved system of 
manuscript designations. , A. Souter, The Text and Canon of the New 
Testament (New York: Scribner, 1913), is a concise and intelligent intro- 
duction to the subject, intended for students. M. R. Vincent, A His- 
tory of Textual Criticism (New York: Scribner, 1899), is especially useful 
as a sketch of the various editions and the critical principles underlying 
them. H. v. Soden, Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, 2 vols. (Berlin: 
Duncker and Glaue, 1902-13), furnishes a new approach to the textual 
problem, resulting in a partial return to the Received Text. While C. 
Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum Graece, ed. octava crit. maior, 2 vols. 
(Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1869-72), has been excelled by the text of Westcott 
and Hort, Tischendorf 's apparatus of readings, though far from infallible 
or complete, is still unsurpassed. K. Lake, The Text of the New Testament 
(London: Rivington, 1902; 4th ed.. New York: Gorham, 1908), is the 
best short sketch for the general reader. F. H. A. Scrivener, A Plain 
Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, 2 vols., 4th ed. (London: 
Bell, 1894), is an elaborate work, advocating the superiority of the tra- 
ditional text. 

6. The interpretation of the books of the New Testa- 
ment. — With the book in a corrected text before him, with a 
knowledge of the language in which it is written, with an intel- 
ligent understanding of the life of the period in which it was 
written and a specific knowledge of the occasion which called 



2IO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

forth the book and the purpose which it was intended to 
achieve, the student is prepared to undertake the detailed inter- 
pretation of the book itself. This involves, as already pointed 
out, the discovery with the utmost possible accuracy of the 
precise state of mind of the author of which the book is a 
reflection (cf. p. 177). 

The interpretative process may be divided into two parts, 
grammatical interpretation and logical interpretation. The 
term ''grammatical," as here used, does not mean pertaining 
to grammar, but has a meaning derived directly from the Greek 
word gramma, pertaining to that which is written. Similarly, 
the term ''logical," as here used, has no direct reference to 
logic, but derives its meaning from the Greek word logos 
in the sense of discourse. 

Grammatical interpretation deals with the separate 
expressed elements that compose the complex discourse, and 
aims at the reproduction of the author's thought in so far as 
that thought was embodied in the separate terms as such and 
in their grammatical relations. 

Logical interpretation deals with the thought of the 
writer in its continuity as discourse. 

a) Grammatical interpretation. — This part of the inter- 
pretative process falls into two parts, according as it has to 
do with the meaning of words or with their relation in the 
sentence; with questions of lexicography or of grammar. 

On its lexicographical side again it falls into two parts, 
according as it seeks to ascertain the general usages of a word 
or its particular meaning in the passage in hand. Inasmuch 
as the meaning possible to a term in any given passage must 
be one of the meanings which were current for that word in 
that period in which the passage was written, it is evident on 
the one hand that the discovery of possible, that is, of current, 
meanings, must precede the assignment of a meaning to a 
given instance of the term, and on the other hand that the 
possible meanings must be determined by a historical investi- 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 211 

gation. The latter is the process which we have already 
described as the task of the lexicographer. Its results are 
embodied in lexicons and dictionaries. The task of discover- 
ing which of the several meanings of a word historically 
established to be current the word bears in a given passage 
belongs to the interpreter as such. Only in the case that a 
word had but one meaning in the period in which the passage 
under consideration was written do the two processes merge 
in one. 

It is obvious that the same principles hold in the reahn of 
grammatical relations — grammatical interpretation in the 
narrower sense of the term — as in that of meanings of words. 
The grammarian must first determine the possible usages of a 
given form, and then the interpreter as such must decide 
which of the relationships listed in the grammar corresponds 
to the writer's thought in the passage under consideration. 
Thus, for example, before one can decide in which of the 
various forces of an aorist indicative a particular aorist 
indicative is used, he must know in what various ways verbs 
in the aorist indicative were used in the period in which the 
New Testament books were written. 

One ordinarily turns for information of this kind as concerns 
meanings of words to a lexicon, and as pertains to meanings 
of forms and syntactical relations to a grammar. This is 
not because of any divine right of lexicons and grammars. 
Any student who has the ability, time, and patience may be 
his own lexicographer and grammarian. But unless he is 
prepared to give himself to the laborious historical study on 
which lexicons and grammars are based, he must rely upon 
the scholars who have done this work for him. But he must 
also be on his guard to take into account those meanings of 
words and those usages of forms which were current in the 
period from which the literature that he is studying came, and 
only those. Because Liddell and Scott assign to a word a given 
meaning, citing for it an example in Homer, it does not follow 



212 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

that it could have been so used by Paul; nor does the non- 
occurrence in Plato or his contemporaries of a certain usage 
of the subjunctive exclude the possibility of its occurrence in 
the New Testament. 

But if in the first part of the process of grammatical inter- 
pretation, viz., the enumeration of possible meanings and 
possible relations, the student is naturally dependent on the 
lexicon and the grammar, in the second part, the selection 
of the actual meaning and the actual relation, he must, if he 
will be a real interpreter, assume a more independent position. 
The lexicons, for example, and of course the commentaries, 
frequently express an opinion as to the meaning of a word in a 
given passage. But such opinion is only incidental to the 
proper task of the lexicon and is of necessity subject to more 
doubt than the verdict of the lexicon as to possible meanings. 
The lexicographer's opinion in his own proper field, the 
possible meanings of a word, is, or should be, based upon a 
broad induction and the study of many instances, and the 
probability that it is correct is much greater than that he is 
right in his interpretation of each individual passage. Appeal 
on the latter point may therefore properly be taken by the 
interpreter to the evidence itself. This evidence is to be 
found in the context — either the immediate context, which 
is often decisive by excluding all meanings but one, or the 
broader context, which, by disclosing the general trend of the 
writer's thought, guides one to the meaning which he has in 
mind for the term under examination. Further help may 
be obtained from parallel passages, this term being taken in 
its broader sense as referring to other passages in which the 
same writer has dealt with the same or similar subjects. 

To the meaning of a word it is often necessary to add, 
for purposes of interpretation, its reference. Many nouns 
and even verbs are to this extent like pronouns. They have 
reference to persons, things, or acts which are identified, 
not by the meaning of the term, but by the context. . Such 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 213 

identification is as necessary to the recovery of the writer's 
thought as is the discovery of his meaning. Thus, in Rom. 
5:12, ''for that all sinned," the problem of interpretation is 
not only to define the word ''sinned" and the force of its 
tense, but, even more important, to determine what event or 
series of events is referred to. 

It is also necessary in many cases to discover what associ- 
ated ideas were conveyed by words in addition to what may be 
strictly called their meaning. Thus the words "publican," 
"Pharisee," Sadducee" in the New Testament had each their 
own associated ideas, and these ideas were as much a part of 
the writer's thought in the use of words as the lexicographical 
definition. 

Altogether analogous to the process by which one ascer- 
tains the meaning of a word in a given passage is that by which 
the grammatical relations of terms are determined. The 
grammarian lists the possible usages. The interpreter must 
discover, by the study of the context and other like methods, 
which of the particular usages is in the writer's mind in the 
particular passage. Often the grammarian will incidentally, 
by citing a given passage as an illustration of a given usage, 
express an opinion as to the use of the form in that passage. 
But such opinions are, like the similar verdicts of the lexicog- 
rapher, only opinions, not authoritative assertions, and to the 
interpreter as such belongs the decision. 

h) Logical interpretation. — It might seem as if with these 
tasks accomplished, viz., from the possible meanings of the 
various terms the actual ones selected and from among their 
possible relationships their actual relations determined, the 
interpreter's task would be fully accomplished. But such is 
far from being the case. To content one's self with these re- 
sults, important, essential, and difficult of achievement as they 
often are, would often be to fall far short of grasping the writer's 
thought, of "representing to one's own mind the whole of 
that state of mind of the author of which the language to be 



214 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

interpreted was the expression." A story, an essay, a 
poem, a parable, a sermon, is a unity, not a collection of 
disjecta membra, nor can all the relations of part to part be 
reduced to grammatical statement. It represents a continuous 
current of thought, imperfectly represented by the words 
that suggest it and therefore imperfectly interpreted by 
definitions of words and naming of grammatical relationships. 
By means of language souls come into communion. The 
ultimate purpose of interpretation, it has well been said, 
is the communion of souls. But the communion of souls 
requires both expression and interpretation, and the thought 
which by means of language, expressed and interpreted, 
passes from soul to soul is often conveyed far more by what 
it suggests than by what it definitely expresses. Hence arises 
the necessity that to the process of grammatical interpretation, 
which deals with what is expressed in words, there should be 
added a process of logical interpretation which shall seek to 
reproduce the current of thought in its continuity, the body of 
thought in its unity. 

More specifically stated, the necessity for logical inter- 
pretation arises from two facts respecting the character of 
human language: first, no language, save possibly that of 
mathematical formulae and logical definitions, expresses in 
words all the thought which it is intended to produce, and 
actually does produce, in the hearer's mind; the language leaves 
gaps to be filled by suggestion ; secondly, one train of thought 
is frequently employed to suggest another, the latter in itself 
wholly different from the former but so related to it that the 
utterance of the former begets the latter also. In other 
words, all men talk more or less in figures of speech. 

Corresponding to these two facts are two great divisions of 
logical interpretation: the interpretation of literal language 
and the interpretation of figurative language, the two having 
this in common, that they both deal with the reproduction 
of thought not actually expressed in the written or spoken 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 215 

word, and differing in this, that the former has to do with 
fining the gaps between words, the latter with discovering in 
one Hne of thought conveyed by the words in their Kteral and 
usual sense a parallel line which it is the writer's intention 
to suggest. 

The methods of logical interpretation applied to literal 
language are by the very nature of the process itself sus- 
ceptible of much less exact definition than those of gram- 
matical interpretation. It must suffice here to lay down a 
few general principles. 

(i) Logical interpretation must presuppose and be pre- 
ceded by grammatical interpretation; links of connection 
between expressed elements of thought can be suppHed 
intelligently only when the expressed elements are them- 
selves correctly apprehended. 

(2) The omitted elements of thought which logical inter- 
pretation must supply in order to recover the continuous cur- 
rent of thought may vary all the way from a more exact 
definition of relationship between terms than can be deter- 
mined grammatically, to a whole sentence, expressing a fact 
taken for granted in discussion, and necessary to continuity 
of thought, but left unstated because already present to the 
mind of speaker and hearer. 

(3) The element of thought to be supplied must always 
be something contained in the mental possessions of the 
speaker or writer and believed by him to be in possession 
of those to whom he speaks or writes. The writer can leave 
to be supplied only what he knows, and assumes that his 
reader knows. The process of logical interpretation demands, 
therefore, an acquaintance as full as possible with the ideas 
common to the writer and originally intended reader. These 
are of course largely the ideas current in their age and environ- 
ment. It is just at this point that New Testament interpre- 
tation is making greatest progress today, in the recovery of the 
thought and life of the age in which Christianity was born. 



2i6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

(4) The element to be supplied must be so connected with 
what is expressed that the latter may be expected to suggest 
the former. The writer cannot assume that his reader will 
think of things in no way associated with what he puts into 
words. 

(5) From material reasonably believed to be the common 
property of the writer and the originally intended reader, 
and germane to the subject in hand, the exegetical imagination 
must construct hypothetical bridges to cover the gaps left 
between the expressed elements. 

(6) Such hypothetical bridges must be rigidly tested to see 
whether the suggestion gives continuity and logical consistency 
to the discourse, and whether the resulting course of thought 
is of such character that it can reasonably be attributed to the 
writer. That connection which best stands these tests may 
then be accepted as most probably representing the thought 
as it lay in the mind of the writer. 

But if the formulation of rules or principles applicable to 
the interpretation of literal language is difficult and necessarily 
inadequate, much more is this the case in respect to figurative 
language. No attempt can be made here to classify the 
various types and forms of figurative language or to formulate 
the specific principles of interpretation that apply to meta- 
phors, parables, and allegories. It must suffice to reiterate 
two general principles : first, interpretation aims to reproduce 
the writer's thought, not some other meaning which may be 
supposed in some more or less arbitrary way to belong to the 
words; secondly, it is a characteristic of human language 
generally that, habitually conveying more thought than it 
actually expresses, it often does this through the medium of a 
course of thought wholly distinct from that which is directly 
expressed though parallel to it; through an induced current, 
so to speak. 

The task of the interpreter, therefore, is by no means 
limited to finding out the meanings of words, however neces- 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 217 

sary this may be as a part of his task, but requires him to 
reproduce the state of mind of his author and to pass through 
— or, more exactly, to perceive — the mental experience 
which the words of the author were intended to generate. 
In other words, the interpreter must neither include in his 
result things which the author's language suggests to his mind, 
but which the author did not have in mind, nor, by Hmiting 
himself to merely lexicographical and grammatical processes, 
exclude any thought which the author intended to generate. 

The whole process of interpretation is therefore reproduc- 
tive. Only when the interpreter as he reads lives through 
the mental experience which it was the purpose of the poem, 
the sermon, or the story to produce, only when he perceives in 
its entirety what the author saw before his vision as he wrote 
and intended his reader to see as he heard or read, has he 
achieved his purpose as interpreter. Successful interpretation, 
always reproductive, is as appHed to ancient writings a process 
of resurrection and recreation. 

c) Application of the process of interpretation to the New 
Testament hooks. — It is to such a process as this that it is the 
task of the New Testament interpreter to subject all the 
literature from which he can derive material for the recon- 
struction of the early history of Christianity. Pre-eminent 
among this literature for his purpose are the books of the 
New Testament. Each of these represented a certain mental 
process and possession in the writer's mind which it was his 
purpose to reproduce in his hearer's mind. By its every word 
and construction it conveys some elements of that mental 
process. But its total thought is more than the meanings of 
words and the significance of construction. In its onward 
movement it is comparable to a stream, which One sees through 
a series of windows, not all of it visible to the eyes, but repro- 
ducible in its continuity by the mind, which, from that which 
is visible, reproduces the whole. In its totahty it is com- 
parable to a building, of which one gains knowledge by 



2i8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

observation of its several parts and constituents, but whose 
beauty and whose meaning as a representation of the archi- 
tect's idea are something far more than the added-up result 
of one's observation of its parts. 

The task of the interpreter calls for careful study of words 
and constructions, phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence, 
paragraph by paragraph, for careful tracing out of- the course 
of thought in its continuity, and for the reproduction of that 
mental picture which lay before the writer's mind when he 
had finished his book, if not also in a measure before he 
began it. 

d) Use of the original or of translation in interpretation. — ^As 
already indicated, the work of interpretation is obviously best 
performed on the basis of the original text of the books, since 
only on this basis can the interpreter study the actual words 
and constructions by which the author expressed his thought. 
Yet much can be done on the basis of a good translation, it 
being as a rule only the finer shades of meaning that are missed 
by the student of an English translation. The greatest lack 
of such a student is an English dictionary of the words of the 
New Testament. With this supplied, as it is to be hoped it 
will be some day, his handicap as compared with the Greek 
student would be greatly reduced. Such as it is, it should be 
overcome as far as possible by a diligent effort to reproduce 
the atmosphere in which the book was produced and by 
repeated attentive readings of the book in the consciousness 
of that atmosphere. By these means the student of the 
English translation may arrive at a good understanding of 
the great ideas of his author and the total significance of his 
book, which will be of greater value than that which the stu- 
dent of the Greek achieves by minute study if he neglect the 
larger matters of contemporary thought, general purpose, 
and sweep of thought. 

Literature. — Of thoroughly satisfactory treatises on interpretation 
there are very few. The following are among the best available: J. A. 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 219 

Ernesti, Principles of Biblical Interpretation, English translation of the 
Institutio Interpretis by Charles H. Terrot (Edinburgh: Clark, 1843; 
by Moses Stuart, Andover: Draper, 1842); A. Immer, Hermeneutics 
of the New Testament, translated by A. H. Newman (Andover: Draper, 
1877) ; M. S. Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics, 2d ed. (New York: Phillips & 
Hunt, 1883) ; F. W. Farrar, History of Interpretation (New York: Dutton, 
1886); G. H. Gilbert, Interpretation of the Bible (New York: Macmillan, 
1908); H. S. Nash, History of the Higher Criticism of the New Testament 
(New York: Macmillan, 1903). 

Of modern commentaries on the New Testament the best in general 
for the student who knows Greek, but does not use German easily, are: 
International Critical Commentary, edited by C. A. Briggs, S. R. Driver, 
and Alfred Plummer (New York: Scribner, 1895-); The Expositor's 
Greek Testament, edited by W. R. NicoU, 4 vols. (New York: Dodd, 
Mead & Co., 1897-). 

To these are to be added many volumes on single books or groups of 
books, among which the following are important: C. G. Montefiore, The 
Synoptic Gospels, 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1909); Plummer, An 
Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Matthew (New 
York: Scribner, 1909); H. B. Swete, The Gospel according to St. Mark 
(London: Macmillan, 1902); Allan Menzies, The Earliest Gospel 
[Mark] (New York: Macmillan, 1901); F. Godet, Commentary on the 
Gospel of St. Luke, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Clark); Commentary on the 
Gospel of St. John, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: Clark, 1883); B. F. Westcott, 
"St. John's Gospel," Bible Commentary (New York: Scribner, 1891); 
J. B. Lightfoot, St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, nth ed. (New York: 
Macmillan, 1905); St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, 9th ed. (New 
York: Macmillan, 1891); St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians and to Phile- 
mon (New York: Macmillan, 1904); T. C. Edwards, Commentary on the 
First Epistle to the Corinthians (New York: Doran, 1897) ; J. A. Robinson, 
St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians (New York: Macmillan, 1903) ; George 
MilHgan, St. Paul's Epistles to the Thessalonians (New York: Macmillan, 
1908); B. F. Westcott, Epistle to the Hebrews (New York: Macmillan, 
1906); J. B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James (New York: Mac- 
millan, 1910); B. F. Westcott, The Epistles of St. John (New York: 
Macmillan, 1892); H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John (New 
York: Macmillan, 1907). 

For the student who reads German the following are specially to be 
commended: H. A. W. Meyer, Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar ilber das 
Neue Testament, revised by Bernhard Weiss and others, 18 vols. (Got- 
tingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1910-); Johannes Weiss (editor), 



2 20 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Die Schrijten des Neuen Testaments, 2 vols. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck 
und Ruprecht, 1907); H. Lietzmann (editor), Handbuch zum Neuen 
Testament, 5 vols. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1907-11); T. Zahn, Kommentar 
zum Neuen Testament (Leipzig: Deichert, 1905-). 

For the student who reads neither Greek nor German the following 
series are specially commended : Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 
(Cambridge: University Press, 1877-96); New Century Bible (New 
York: Frowde, 1 899-1 904); Bible for Home and School, edited by 
Shailer Mathews (New York: Macmillan, 1908-). 

For fuller hsts of commentaries and other modern literature on the 
New Testament see C. W. Votaw, "Books for New Testament Study," 
Biblical World, XXXVII (May, 1911). 

II. THE HISTORY OE THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

I. History of interpretation and criticism. — a) Ancient 
interpretation generally allegorical. — The Pharisees had believed 
the Law of Moses to be verbally inspired and the Hellenistic 
Jews had extended this predicate to the whole of their scrip- 
tures, which included all the Hebrew Bible and much more 
beside. As thus inspired the divine word must, it was 
thought, be in all its parts capable of religious edification. 
This idea is very clearly put in II Timothy: ''Every scrip- 
ture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness." 
This was precisely the view of the Jews of the Graeco-Roman 
world about the Jewish scriptures. 

But many passages of these writings did not, when taken 
literally, yield any such moral instruction, and pious Jews 
were carried along by their own principle to an allegorical 
treatment of them, by which the most unpromising narra- 
tive or ordinance could be made to serve the purposes of 
religion. It did not matter that the allegorical interpreter 
extracted from his text only what he had previously put into 
it. The dogma was satisfied. This way of using the Old 
Testament is familiarly exemplified in the writings of Philo 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 221 

of Alexandria. Paul occasionally falls back into it, and the 
writer to the Hebrews habitually employs it. 

Growing up under the shadow of the Old Testament and 
coming at length to share its position of scriptural authority, 
the New Testament shared also in the allegorical treatment 
it received. From the time the New Testament books began 
to be regarded as Scripture we find Irenaeus and Origen 
treating them allegorically, and finding in them types and 
figures of spiritual need and remedy. 

The scholars of Antioch, it is true, kept themselves free 
from this fallacious and illusory method of using Scripture 
and practiced the literal interpretation of the New Testament, 
which John Chrysostom, their greatest preacher, conspicu- 
ously exeniplified. But except for an occasional figure like 
Theodore of Mopsuestia, the allegorical method, under the 
influence of the scholars and teachers of Alexandria, pre- 
vailed in the early church. 

h) Eclipse of ancient criticism. — The collection of the New 
Testament writings into a sacred and authoritative canon 
incidentally removed them from the reach of criticism, that is, 
critical inquiry into their authenticity and historical char- 
aracter. But ancient Christianity was not altogether un- 
conscious of critical doubts and critical method. Julius 
Africanus, the friend of Origen, wrote him a very acute letter 
as to the History of Susanna, pointing out certain very cogent 
critical difficulties about supposing Daniel to have made in 
Hebrew the plays upon Greek words with which that book 
credits him. Susanna was part of the Greek Old Testament, 
and Africanus was engaged in biblical criticism. Origen's 
reply failed to meet his argument, and shows how far the 
greatest Alexandrians were from the historical method. But 
a little later another Alexandrian, Dionysius, showed critical 
interest and acumen when he pointed out that the Revela- 
tion differed markedly from the Fourth Gospel in both 
literary style and general tenor. But the general behef in the 



222 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

inspiration of the Scriptures brought with it the idea of the 
infallibility of Scripture, and the sporadic critical impulses 
of antiquity went down before this formidable combination. 
When the Catholic church added to these the authoritative 
interpretation of Scripture, criticism was completely halted, 
and so continued for a thousand years. 

c) Modern revival of criticism. — It was just this authorita- 
tive interpretation, however, that in the end opened the 
way for the revival of criticism. For over against Christian 
Scripture there grew up the Catholic tradition, and at length 
the disparity between the two became too great. The 
Protestant Reformation resulted. Two centuries later the 
critical movement stirring since the Renaissance reached a 
climax, and criticism began to be definitely appHed to the 
New Testament. 

It was the text that first felt the touch of criticism. 
Richard Simon (ti7i2) began the critical study of the New 
Testament text, and Semler (born 1725) carried it on. But 
Semler went beyond the CathoHc scholar in this, that under 
the influence of his classical and historical studies he applied 
his criticism not simply to the New Testament text but as 
well to the New Testament canon, the origin of which he 
sought freely to investigate. Semler saw that in order to 
interpret the New Testament it must be historically under- 
stood, each document in it being interpreted in the light of 
the circumstances which called it forth and which it was in- 
tended to meet. In Semler we see the transition from the 
lower (textual) to the higher (literary and historical) criticism. 

One of the first problems to emerge in this new study was 
the synoptic problem — that is, the question of the literary 
relationships of the first three gospels. Investigation of the 
authorship of the Fourth Gospel and of the Pastoral Epistles 
soon followed. But with 1835 a new unity begins to per- 
vade these detached and generally negative studies. It was 
no longer enough to show that Paul did not write the Pastorals 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 223 

or John the Fourth Gospel. It was seen that, whoever did 
or did not write these books, they had possessed great influ- 
ence and worth and had functioned importantly in the world 
for which they were written, and that even a non-apostolic 
writing might have great human significance and worth. 
With Baur and Strauss criticism became a constructive 
method. In this rather than in their extreme results lay their 
contribution to critical study. Their work has been modified 
and corrected by the influence of the followers of Schleier- 
macher (11834), Ritschl (1822-89), and others. 

d) Historical interpretation. — It will be seen that it is 
criticism that has opened the way for the historical inter- 
pretation of the New Testament. The New Testament is 
no longer interpreted as a book apart, but as having arisen 
in the closest possible human relationships. While the 
authoritative Catholic interpretation assumed the agreement 
of the various writers with one another, the historical method 
is prepared to recognize disagreements where they exist. In 
other words, each New Testament author is guaranteed the 
right to speak as he sees fit, not warped into a rigid and minute 
conformity to the other authors of the New Testament. 
Moreover, the sources of the documents and the Uterary 
methods which some of the writers employed are to be 
studied with the same diligence and freedom as are applied 
to any other historical documents, in order that our knowledge 
of the New Testament may be as sound and trustworthy as 
earnest and intelligent inquiry can make it. 

Literature. — F. H. Farrar, History of Interpretation (London: Mac- 
millan, 1886). G. H. Gilbert, A Short History of the Interpretation of the 
Bible (New York: Macmillan,i9o8), is a compact and useful sketch for 
the general reader. H. S. Nash, A History of the Higher Criticism of the 
New Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1903), explains to the general 
reader how criticism became necessary and possible and how it came 
to be actually applied to the New Testament writings. C. A. Briggs, 
A General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture (New York: 
Scribner 1899), is a large work, well informed and readable, by one who 
did much to advance the critical understanding of the Old Testament. 



224 GUIDE TO STUDY GF CHRISTIAN RELIGIGN 

2. History of the Canon. — a) Problems presented by the 
appearance of the New Testament. — The best and earhest 
Christian writings were composed at various times and places 
to meet the specific demands of definite historical situations. 
Their writers with one exception claimed for them no such 
authority as Old Testament Scripture possessed. How did it 
come about that they were afterward collected into a sacred 
canon? The primitive church acknowledged the inward 
authority of the spirit in the heart .^ They esteemed this above 
any written word. ''The letter killeth, the spirit giveth life." 
Why did they so soon appeal to a new Scripture ? 

What was the purpose of the collection ? Was it to 
supply historical material on Christian origins, or devotional 
works for church use, or manuals of church life and manage- 
ment, or literature for missionary propaganda? Was it to 
complete the Old Testament as a companion volume or 
to compete with it as a modern substitute ? 

How did these books come to be collected? Their 
writers did not intend them for such a purpose. Was it an 
unconscious automatic movement, by which without human 
contrivance these books and no others found each other amid 
the Christian writings of the first two centuries and clung 
together? Who invented the New Testament? Did Mar- 
cion, the first man to put out any considerable collection of 
Paul's letters ? Or Justin, the first one to show acquaintance 
with four gospels ? Was it the church at Antioch, or Ephesus, 
or Alexandria, or Rome ? Or did each of these -have a share 
in the process ? 

Not only the concept but the content of this New Testa- 
ment provokes inquiry. Upon what principle was it made 
up ? Was it supposed to include apostolic writings only and 
all the apostolic writings ? Was the test authorship, or age, 
or edification ? 

The presence of four gospels raises a question. Why four 
instead of one, or five ? There were other gospels and among 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 225 

these four the early church had its favorite gospel, the one 
known to us as Matthew's. How comes it that the New 
Testament includes and co-ordinates four such narratives, 
although on some matters they very definitely disagree? 

h) Variety among ancient New Testaments. — Even after 
the early churches had become accustomed to the idea of a 
Christian Scripture, there was evidently much uncertainty 
as to what particular books belonged in the collection which 
they named the New Testament. In Alexandria the Epistle 
of Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Teaching of the 
Twelve Apostles were regarded as Scripture by some very 
intelligent men. In Rome the Revelation of Peter seems to 
have been so esteemed. But in Syria not even the Revela- 
tion of John was accepted as part of the New Testament. 
The Syrian church indeed long admitted only twenty-two 
books to its New Testament, omitting II Peter, Jude, and 
II and III John. On the other hand, the Syrian church, 
at one stage in its history, accepted III Corinthians as canon- 
ical. The Roman church long excluded the Epistle to the 
Hebrews from the New Testament. As late as the fourth 
century individual Christian leaders in Asia Minor excepted 
from their New Testament various minor epistles which we 
find in our New Testament, and even the Revelation of 
John. Some of our earhest Greek manuscripts of the Bible 
(Sinai ticus, Alexandrinus) include as part of the New Testa- 
ment such books as I and II Clement, Hermas, and Barnabas. 

Out of this ancient confusion when did our New Testament 
emerge in clear and definite form? What conditions and 
considerations determined its final form, and who was respon- 
sible for it ? How far are those considerations valid today ? 

These questions have a definite bearing upon our con- 
ception of the New Testament and upon its proper place in 
modern religious Hfe. How shall they be answered ? 

c) Historical approach to the problem. — The New Testament 
is evidently in some sense the companion of the Old. Whether 



2 26 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

it arose as supplement or as substitute, the Old Testament is 
its parent and its explanation. We must inquire what was 
thought of the Jewish Scriptures by the Jewish people of the 
first century and how Jesus and his first followers regarded 
them. To what extent did they regard the Old Testament as 
authoritative ? We must ask further what other authorities 
the first Christians recognized and what the earliest Chris- 
tian writers thought about their own authority. We must 
trace these ideas of inward and of outward authorities through 
the meager remains of early Christian literature into the 
fuller stream which develops in the time of Irenaeus and 
Tertullian. We must observe how the phrase New Covenant 
or New Testament, first used by Jeremiah, and quoted more 
than once in the New Testament, came to assume a literary 
sense and to be used of the collection of books in which that 
New Covenant was set forth. We must find out what 
Christian writings were first esteemed equal in authority tcr 
the Old Testament Scriptures and to what they owed this 
preferment. We must see what part prophets and apostles 
played in this development and try to appreciate the situation 
of tte primitive churches, scattered, unrelated, and not 
highly intelligent, when the gifted and enthusiastic party 
leaders of the second century began to move among them with 
energy, eloquence, and fervor. 

d) The rise of the New Testament. — ^We must study the 
rise of the Catholic church, which sought to unify and relate 
these scattered rehgious units and recall them to what it 
deemed the primitive type of Christian teaching. We shall 
observe the different ways in which the several leading centers 
of Christianity, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, contributed to 
this movement, and the different Ksts of Christian writings, 
which the different districts saw fit to canonize by reading 
from them publicly in Christian worship. While Syria lags 
behind in canon-building and Alexandria, with its encyclopedic 
writers, forges ahead, Rome occupies a middle ground. We 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 227 

shall find Eusebius, perhaps the most intelligent Christian 
of his time, uncertain as to precisely what books ought to be 
included in the New Testament and content to reproduce 
Origen's classification of them into accepted, rejected, and 
disputed books. Not until the festal letter of Athanasius in 
the year 367 shall we find the list of books which we have 
in our New Testament anywhere set forth without addition 
or omission. Councils later indorsed this list, but centuries 
more elapsed before the Greek and Latin churches unani- 
mously concurred in it. Meantime the Syrian church clung to 
its limited canon of twenty- two books and the Armenian church 
shared its opposition to the Book of Revelation and the lesser 
Catholic epistles (II Peter, II, III John, Jude), while the 
Ethiopic or Abyssinian church on the other hand developed 
a fuller canon than Western Christianity had done, including 
eight or nine writings unknown to the Western canon. 

The New Testament in modern times. — An occasional 
Latin manuscript, it is true, included the spurious little 
Epistle to the Laodiceans in the Vulgate New Testament, 
but there was general unanimity in the West as to the con- 
tents of the New Testament when the invention of printing 
made possible the general circulation of the whole collection 
in a single volume. But this had hardly taken place when 
the critical views of certain reformers began to threaten the 
position of minor documents such as James. Other reformers 
like Calvin set forth a very rigorous doctrine of Scripture, and 
on the whole the Reformation tended to confirm and enhance 
the authority of the canonized New Testament. The spirit 
of criticism, however, awakened in the Renaissance, at length 
took up the canon's claim to unique authority. The effects 
of that inquiry constitute the latest chapter in the history 
of the New Testament. Under its influence we are today 
perhaps nearer to the primitive Christian conception of the 
basis of authority in religion than the church has been for 
many centuries. 



228 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

On the whole, no discipline connected with New Testament 
study is more illuminating and emancipating than the study of 
the history of the New Testament canon. 

Literature. — ^B. F. Westcott, A General Survey of the History of the 
Canon of the New Testament, 7th ed. (London: Macmillan, 1896); C. R. 
Gregory, The Canon and Text of the New Testament (New York: Scribner, 
1907), both standard descriptive treatments, not always alive to the 
great problems of the canon's history; A. Souter, The Text and Canon of 
the New Testament (New York: Scribner, 1913), a condensed presenta- 
tion of the main facts, for the general reader; E. C. Moore, The New 
Testament in the Christian Church (New York: Macmillan, 1904), a 
comprehensive and scholarly presentation of the history of the New 
Testament, for the general reader; T. Zahn, Geschichte des neutesta- 
mentlichen Kanons, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Deichert, 1888-92), valuable for its 
collection and investigation of materials rather than for its deductions; 
Grundriss der Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons (Leipzig : Deichert, 
1901), a concise summary of the conclusions of Zahn's larger work; 
J. Leipoldt, Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, 2 vols. (Leipzig: 
Hinrichs, 1907-8), an excellent modern treatment, only deficient in 
clearness of arrangement; A. Harnack, Die Entstehung des Neuen Testa- 
ments (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 19 14), a timely and incisive sketch of the 
causes and effects of the making of the New Testament; E. Jacquier, Le 
nouveau Testament dans VEglise Chretienne, Vol. I (Paris: LecofEre, 1911), 
clear, fair, and intelligent in its presentation of evidence and opinion, 
but dogmatically controlled in its conclusions. 



III. THE USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT TODAY 

It was suggested in the introduction to this chapter 
(p. 165) that the ultimate aim of all New Testament study is 
the enrichment of human life, and of course specifically in 
those aspects of life which we commonly include under the 
terms ''moral" and ''religious." This discussion ought not 
to close, therefore, without a few words concerning the uses 
of the New Testament by modern men. We may distinguish 
four such uses. 

I. For the purposes of history. — On this point little need 
be added to what was said in the introduction, pp. 165 ff. 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 229 

As pointed out there, the employment of the results of the 
interpretative and critical processes in constructive historical 
work is within the field of New Testament study, but in this 
volume is dealt with mainly in chapter v. It calls, therefore, 
for no extended discussion at this point. All history must be 
written on the basis of records of the past of one sort or 
another. All such records must be interpreted, i.e., their 
meaning must be discovered, in order that they may be avail- 
able for the purposes of the historian. If these records con- 
sist of written statements — literature in the most inclusive 
use of the term — the immediate product of the process of 
interpretation is, as already pointed out, the thought of the 
writer. This thought is itself a historic fact of prime impor- 
tance for the historian. From such data the history of 
thought is constructed, and of all history none is more impor- 
tant than the history of thought. It was the recognition of 
the importance of the history of thought that led in the last 
century to the development of biblical theology as a distinct 
division of the field of biblical study. For biblical theology, 
as it is understood in modern times, is simply the history of 
reHgious thinking in Israel and the early Christian church in so 
far as that history can be traced in the books of the Bible. If 
eventually this discipline shall disappear again from the field 
of theological study, it will be because it is recognized on the 
one hand that the history of thought cannot profitably be 
separated from that of the other aspects of life, and on the 
other that the thought of which the books of the Bible bear 
witness cannot be separated from the Hfe of the period of which 
we have evidence in extra-biblical literature. 

Meantime it is beyond all question clear that the biblical 
historian, whether dealing with thought or external event, 
must do his work genetically. In other words, he must not 
only set forth facts, but must set these facts in relation, associ- 
ating them with their antecedent types of thought and showing 
their relation to later developments. 



230 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

But whether we are dealing with the history of thought or 
of event, in order that the data yielded by interpretation may 
take their proper place in the completed history, the authors 
must be dated and located as exactly as possible, and, if 
possible, identified. That certain opinions were once held 
is a fact of little value to the historian unless he can with some 
measure of approximation determine when, where, and by 
whom they were held. Hence the necessity of literary criti- 
cism to determine authorship, date, and location, not only as a 
preliminary and aid to interpretation, but also as an indis- 
pensable condition of the use of its results by the historian. 

Whether to this process by which the history of opinions 
is discovered it is necessary to add a work of criticism in order 
to determine the correctness of the opinions, depends, from the 
historian's point of view, on the character of the opinions. 
With the correctness of Paul's opinions on matters of theology 
and morals the historian as such is not concerned. That 
Paul held them, itself makes them data for the history of 
opinion, i.e., for biblical theology. But when the matters 
on which statements are made are themselves matters of 
history, as, for example, when Luke afiirms that Jesus was 
born when Quirinus was governor of Syria, or that Paul 
preached in the synagogue of Thessalonica for three Sabbaths, 
to the work of interpretation there must be added a further 
process in order to ascertain not only that Luke thought thus 
and so, but also what the historic fact was. For this purpose 
all the available evidence, whether found in the New Testa- 
ment, or on ancient monuments, or in the writings of Greek or 
Roman historians, must be brought to bear, testimony com- 
pared with testimony, and that finally accepted as fact which, 
so accepted, best accounts for all the evidence. 

Nor can the student altogether escape the necessity for 
far-reaching investigations and the use of general conclusions 
based on extensive study in the realm of biology, history, or 
philosophy. It must always be remembered that the record 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 231 

is that which requires to be accounted for/ This is the 
fixed fact — that the record affirms, for example, that Jesus 
was born without human paternity, that Stephen when 
accused before the Sanhedrin made a certain speech, that 
Peter when imprisoned in Jerusalem was released by an 
angel and guided out of the prison, the gates opening of them- 
selves. It is not the historian's task, or within his province, 
simply to deny the assertion or expunge the record, but to 
discover what is the most probable genesis of the record. 
Is it a correct interpretation of veritable experiences, or a 
misinterpretation, or a modification of an account which was 
originally one or the other of these, or a poetic expression of 
more prosaic facts which we ourselves are liable to misread 
through misinterpretation of its character ? 

In the consideration of these and other possible explana- 
tions of the fact of the record, account must be taken of such 
matters as the way in which the New Testament books — 
especially the narrative books — arose, as this is disclosed, for 
example, by extensive and minute study of the relation of the 
Synoptic Gospels to one another; the way in which the men 
of the first Christian century thought and reasoned in refer- 
ence to what may be called the natural and the supernatural ; 
the total evidence of biology as to the possibihty of partheno- 
genesis, and the total evidence of history as to the probabihty 
of the occurrence of unique exceptions to otherwise universal 
laws. The eventual verdict of the historian will be the accept- 
ance of that as fact which, being so accepted, best accounts for 
the existence of the record as it stands. Thus the New 
Testament scholar in his character as historian becomes far 
more than an interpreter and cannot escape those large 
responsibilities which fall to the historian in general. 

Literature. — ^Weiss, Biblical Theology of the New Testament, 2 vols. 
(Edinburgh: Clark, 1879), Introduction; Beyschlag, New Testament 
Theology, 2 vols., Introduction (Edinburgh: Clark, 1896); Burton, "The 
Relation of Biblical Theology to Systematic Theology," Biblical World, 
Vol. XXX (December, 1907), pp. 418-28. 



232 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

2. For the purposes of theology and ethics. — In the realm 
of theological and ethical thought the student of the New 
Testament not only finds certain opinions expressed, but dis- 
covers the historic fact that these opinions were held and ad- 
vocated by those great historic persons whose hfe and works 
gave birth to Christianity. It also falls within his task as a 
historian to discover how these teachers and writers influenced 
one another and how they were severally influenced by the 
thought of their predecessors and contemporaries, whether 
Jewish, Greek, Roman, or oriental. In other words, the New 
Testament historian deals with genetic relations, not simply 
with unrelated facts. It is within his scope to discover not 
only how far the author of the Fourth Gospel, for example, 
was influenced by Paul and what use he made of the Synoptists, 
but also how far he was affected by the Stoic philosophy, the 
Judaeo- Greek type of thought exemplified in Philo, or the 
Orientahsm which was sweeping over the Graeco-Roman 
world in his day. 

But all this falls strictly within the sphere of history. It 
may indeed throw important light upon questions of value. 
To discover, if such be the case, that a certain opinion of 
Paul was absorbed by him from an oriental rehgion which as 
a whole has little claim to be of exceptionally high rehgious 
value may properly affect one's judgment of the weight which 
is to be given to such an opinion as compared with one w^hich is 
found to be the product of a personal and profoundly ethical 
experience of the apostle himself. Yet origins do not of them- 
selves determine values. To label a doctrine oriental is not 
to prove it false, nor to mark it Hebrew to prove it true. 

Questions of boundary are usually difficult to settle. It 
is more important to make clear distinctions in one's mind 
between questions of fact and origin and those of value and 
truth than to determine just where the boundary line hes 
between New Testament study and systematic theology. The 
former are clearly within the sphere of the New Testament 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 233 

student, and in dealing with the latter one is certainly ap- 
proaching, if not entering, the domain of the theologian and 
ethicist. Perhaps it is best to say that New Testament 
scholarship has discharged its duty when it has answered the 
questions of history, including those of origin, and delivered 
its historic results to the theologian. It may then be left 
to the latter to say how these results shall be used to contribute 
to the ends of his science. 

Literature. — E. D. Burton, "The Relation of Biblical to Systematic 
Theology," Biblical World, XXX (December, 1907), 418-28; Gerald B. 
Smith, "What Shall the Systematic Theologian Expect from the New 
Testament Scholar?" American Journal of Theology, XIX (July, 19 15), 
383-401. _ 

3. For the development of personal character. — The New 

Testament presents to us certain great and admirable char- 
acters, Peter, John, Paul, Jesus, and a few examples to be 
shunned, Judas, Ananias, and Sapphira. It also abounds in 
ethical and religious teachings, some in the form of specific 
injunctions, others in that of broad, inclusive principles. That 
the character of the noble men of the early Christian church, 
above all and far above them all that of Jesus, presents an 
ideal of character, both in its attitude toward God and in its 
relation to men, which makes a powerful appeal to the human 
mind and conscience and effectively incites to efforts to achieve 
that ideal, the history of the Christian church gives abundant 
evidence. The noblest men of the Christian centuries have 
drawn their inspiration from Jesus, and the noblest achieve- 
ments have found their suggestion and their impetus in him. 
Only less effective have been the teachings of the teachers 
and writers of the New Testament. If the influence of these 
has been less uniformly good, the explanation probably lies 
largely in two facts. First, 'the teachings of the New Testa- 
ment as they stand — and the church generally has not been 
at pains to distinguish sharply between the teachings of Jesus 
and those of his followers, whether expressed as their own or 



234 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

ascribed to him — are on a somewhat lower level and some- 
what more easily open to misapprehension than is the char- 
acter of Jesus or even that of Paul. Thus the literalist, who 
has resorted to the book as his authority, has gained a smaller 
advantage than he who has turned to its great personalities 
for inspiration. The second reason, which is closely connected 
^ith the first, is that many interpreters of the New Testament, 
failing to penetrate deeply enough into its meaning, have taken 
its teachings in a legalistic spirit, thus reversing the real 
intention and missing the deeper thought of both Jesus and 
Paul. LegaHsm, to be sure, if its individual precepts be suffi- 
ciently lofty, tends to produce a type of character having a 
certain nobility, as is illustrated in ancient Phariseeism and the 
Puritanism of the seventeenth century. But, as illustrated 
by these same examples, it fails to produce the highest type 
of character. 

Alike, therefore, from the point of view of sound principles 
of interpretation and from that of the pragmatic test of actual 
effects, it appears that the highest benefit in personal charac- 
ter is achieved, not by treating the New Testament as a 
body of rules of conduct, but on the one hand as a book of 
history, presenting to us in biographical narratives of sur- 
passing interest the highest ideals of character, not to be.copied 
in detail, but to be emulated in spirit and motive, and on the 
other hand as a transcendent example of the ''literature of 
power," setting forth in many forms with many specific illus- 
trations the central principles of the religion of faith in God 
and universal love for all members of the community of sen- 
tient beings. This was both the religion and the morality of 
Jesus and of his great apostle. 

If it be asked whether the teachings of the New Testament 
and the example of Jesus are not to be accepted as authorita- 
tive, the answer must be (and this is largely the point of view 
of the New Testament itself) that in the realm of belief that 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 235 

only can claim authority which can establish itself as true, 
and in the realm of conduct that only which can establish 
itself as good, not for the individual apart from the com- 
munity, but for the community and for the individual as a 
member of the community. The New Testament as a whole 
is the greatest aid to the production of good character of any 
piece of literature in existence; but it is most effective in the 
production of character when its authority is grounded in the 
truth and excellence of its teachings, pragmatically tested, 
not the truth in its authority; when emphasis is laid on its 
great central principles rather than on specific injunctions, 
and when the latter are severally put to the test of their 
conformity to the central principle and their fruitage in life. 

4. For religious teaching and preaching. — Closely associ- 
ated with the use of the books for the development of personal 
character is their employment in religious teaching and preach- 
ing. For centuries Christian preaching has been based very 
largely on the New Testament, and Christian teachers have 
found in it not only a storehouse of texts, but a wealth of inspi- 
rational and instructional material. The discriminative judg- 
ment that has led men who were endeavoring to lift their 
fellow-men to higher moral and religious planes to seek their 
material in this collection of ancient books has a sound basis. 

Nor is there any reason to anticipate that this judgment 
will be reversed or seriously modified by the results of scholarly 
research. The problems with which Jesus and Paul dealt are, 
in part, problems of perennial and deep interest to serious- 
minded men of all ages, in part problems that are again to the 
front in our own day. Not only the specific answer which 
they gave to these questions, but even more the way in which 
they dealt with them, the profound and far-reaching principles 
at which they arrived in their consideration of their tasks, 
above all the ideals of character which their lives exempHfy, 
have always exerted and today still exert a powerful and 



236 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION^ 

healthful influence in stimulating men to noble effort and guid- 
ing them in ways of wisdom and righteousness. The preacher 
who turns away from these deep wells of thought and life 
to shallower streams, and staler, though more modern cisterns, 
makes a serious mistake. The preacher must, indeed, be a 
man of his own day — Si prophet to his own time. But to 
speak effectively to his contemporaries he needs to know the 
great epochs and the great teachers of the past, and he cannot 
afford to neglect the books of the Bible in which preachgrs of 
all the Christian centuries have found unsurpassed instruc- 
tion and unequaled inspiration. 

For the value of these books for the purposes of the teacher 
and preacher is in no way diminished, but rather increased by 
the recognition of the facts respecting their origin and author- 
ity, and a use of them in accordance with the facts. The 
student and preacher who discovers that our New Testament 
books were in no small measure the product of controversies 
and differences of opinion, of struggle within the souls of men 
and between men, learns indeed not to estimate all parts of 
the New Testament as of equal value for all purposes or from 
the religious point of view. But this discovery makes him a 
better not a worse preacher. 

The facts of history have shown that Paul was in error 
in his teaching in I Thessalonians about the coming of the 
Lord in the clouds of heaven. It is a palpable infidehty to 
truth to afhrm that this teaching was true; it is a double error 
to transfer it to the present time and reafhrm it for our own 
day. Some portions of his teachings about marriage and 
spiritual gifts, however adapted to meet the needs of the 
Corinthians, are impossible of reaffirmation today. Whether 
the preacher in the pulpit passes these things over in silence 
and limits himself to the things that have attested themselves 
as true by the test of human experience, as may often be his 
wisest course, or the teacher finds it necessary to deal with 



THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 237 

them explicitly, honestly, and frankly, as he must if they come 
up for consideration at all, both the preaching and the teach- 
ing will be made more effective religiously and morally than 
when it is assumed that all the views of the New Testament 
writers are equally valuable. 

Nor are these superseded teachings thereby simply 
remanded to the historical museum. By dealing with them 
honestly and frankly the religious teacher of today may find 
them of great value. They were vital elements of the experi- 
ence of the early church. They illustrate how inevitable it is 
that rehgious experience shall find expression in terms of the 
thought of the time, and the development of rehgious think- 
ing march abreast with the general intellectual progress of 
the race. The study of them will on the one hand heighten 
our estimate of Jesus, as we discover how keenly his vision 
penetrated to the fundamental facts of religion and escaped 
being warped by the thought of his day, and on the other 
hand make us watchful of our own bias and prejudices and 
tolerant of what seems to us the one-sidedness and provin- 
ciaKsm of other thinkers. 

But above all it is important that the recognition of those 
elements of the New Testament which no longer serve the 
moral and religious needs of modern men should never be 
allowed to obscure from our vision or exclude from our preach- 
ing those far more central elements which are of perpetual 
value and which are capable of being used today with almost 
limitless power for the transformation of character and the 
elevation of the lives of men. All human experience has in 
it moral value for teaching and preaching, and all may there- 
fore be legitimately used for these purposes. But it would 
be a great mistake to overlook the exceptional value of the 
books of the Bible for these purposes, or give them anything 
lower than the place of first importance. The Bible, espe- 
cially the New Testament, is still the preacher's most valuable 



238 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

source of inspiration and thought. To neglect it is to enfeeble 
his ministry and diminish his power. To study it diligently 
and intelligently, while also keeping himself awake to the 
problems of the modern world, is to fit himself to be a 
messenger of power, a prophet of God, to his own day and 
generation. 



V. THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 

By SHIRLEY JACKSON CASE 

Professor of New Testament Interpretation, University of Chicago 



ANALYSIS 

PAGES 

I. Task and Method. — The point of departure. — The ulterior 
limit. — The scope of study. — The developmental character of 
Christianity 241-244 

II. The Contemporary Graeco-Roman World. — Political condi- 
tions. — ^The status of society. — ^The religious situation . . 244-248 

III. Contemporary Judaism. — ^The Jewish dispersion. — Jewish 
life outside Palestine. — The political history of Palestine. — ^The 

status of the people. — Religious conditions. — Jewish literature . . 248-253 

IV. The Work of Jesus. — Jesus' relation to Judaism. — Jesus' 
relation to John the Baptist. — ^The task of the biographer. — The char- 
acter of the sources. — Tests for determining the historicity of tradition. 
— Chronological and geographical data. — Jesus' messianic con- 
sciousness.— The miracles of Jesus. — The personal religion of Jesus. — 

Jesus' place in early Christianity 253-270 

V. Palestinian Jewish Christianity. — Relative importance of 
the period. — Sources of information. — Connections with Judaism. — 
The attainment of the new messianic faith. — The beginnings of a 
new community. — The break with Judaism. — Growth of missionary 
enterprise. — Life in the Palestinian community. — Later history of 
Palestinian Christianity 270-279 

VI. Gentile Christianity in the Apostolic Age. — Characteristics of 
the period. — Sources of information. — The conversion of Paul. — 
Paul's career as a missionary. — Missionary methods of Paul. — Life in 

the Pauline communities. — The Christianity of Paul .... 280-288 

VII. Gentile Christianity in Post- Apostolic Times. — General 
characteristics. — Sources of information. — Evidences of growth. — 
Relation to Judaism. — Relation to the Roman state. — Organization 
and worship. — The content of Christian teaching. — The Christian 

life 289-300 

VIII. The Work of the Early Apologists. — New tendencies. — 
The individual Apologists. — The specific problem of the Apologists. — 
The Logos Christology. — The philosophical vs. the mythical 
motive 300-305 

IX. Gnosticism. — General characteristics. — The antecedents of 
Gnosticism. — Relation to Paul. — Earliest contact with Christianity.— 
The chief Gnostic leaders. — The Gnostic system. — The historical 
significance of Gnosticism 30S~3i5 

X. The Establishment of the Catholic Church. — The emergence 
of the Catholic idea. — Outstanding leaders of the period. — Internal 
conflicts. — Contemporary relationships. — Triumph of the monarch- 
ical ideal 315-326 



* V. THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 

I. TASK AND METHOD 

The point of departure. — The first problem confronting 
the student of early Christianity is the choice of a starting- 
point. Where ought he to begin his study in order to obtain 
a correct and full understanding of that historical phenomenon 
called ' ' early Christianity " ? A moment ' s reflection will show 
that this question cannot be answered so easily as one might 
on first thought imagine. While the name Christianity is 
said to have been coined at Antioch in Syria early in the forties 
(Acts 11:23), the religious movement itself had already been 
in existence for some time. If by "Christianity" we mean 
an independent movement differentiated from Judaism by 
the estabhshment of a new organization, ritual, and doctrine, 
we may properly look for its beginnings in the period following 
close upon the death of Jesus. But this period, while it may 
mark the formal beginning of the new religion, does not supply 
an adequate starting-point for a thoroughly genetic study. 
Although Jesus did not formally break with Judaism, and so 
did not found any new organization, his work was so significant 
for the establishment of the new enterprise that the latter 
cannot be properly understood without taking account of his 
career and the career of his followers prior to his death. 
Again, he and they were part of a specific phase of human 
experience which gave them their problems and supplied them 
with a substantial religious heritage from the past. John 
the Baptist preceded them, and all stood within the great 
stream of later Jewish history. Moreover, Palestine had 
been ruled in turn by several different powers, finally coming 
under the domination of Rome. Consequently conditions 
within Judaism cannot be properly interpreted without some 

241 



242 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

reference to the Graeco-Roman world of which Judaism was 
now a part. The student of early Christianity must take 
account of these historical antecedents if he would make a 
thoroughly genetic study of the new religion. 

The ulterior limit. — A second problem is the choice of a 
a stopping-place. At what date did the Christian movement 
become so well established as an independent religion and win 
for itself so substantial a place in the Mediterranean world 
that it may fairly be said to have reached maturity ? While 
recognizing that all history is one great stream of Hf e and not a 
series of unrelated segments, we still may detect stages in the 
growth of a movement when certain phases of its life become 
so fully crystallized as to mark a definite period in its growth. 
Although Christianity did not receive legal recognition in the 
Roman world until the issuance of the edict of Milan (3 13 a.d.) , 
its distinctive character and form as a future world-religion 
were practically established by the middle of the third cen- 
tury. By this time the movement may be said to have passed 
from youth to maturity. Before this date a distinctively 
Christian literature had been assembled and canonized; 
apologists had come forward to defend the new faith before 
the political authorities and to commend it to the learned; 
Christian communities had become estabKshed all about the 
Mediterranean, especially in the chief centers of population; 
and problems of organization, ritual, and doctrine had been 
worked out along lines which remained fairly stable for some 
time. It is a purely arbitrary, and on the whole erroneous, 
custom to make early Christianity end approximately with the 
year 100, at the close of the so-called New Testament period. 
The student must extend the range of his vision well into the 
third century if he would follow at all fully the course of 
Christianity's initial history. 

The scope of study. — Within this general period how com- 
prehensive should the scope of the student's inquiry be ? If he 
desires to become acquainted only with certain externals in 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 243 

the history of the new rehgion, such as its territorial expansion, 
its ecclesiastical organization, its literary products, or its 
doctrinal tenets, he may confine himself within relatively 
narrow limits. But if in addition to these items he also 
desires insight into the vital experiences and activities of 
actual Christian people, who faced various problems and 
^'worked out their own salvation with fear and trembling," 
the scope of inquiry must be greatly enlarged. These vital 
matters cannot be understood unless one becomes intimately 
acquainted with the actual world in which the early Christians 
lived. And since the new religion drew its membership from 
many sources, a variety of surroundings contributed toward 
the making of life within the new communities. Converts 
from Palestinian Judaism were equipped with a set of expe- 
riences determined more immediately by political, social, 
cultural, and reHgious conditions within Palestine, but more 
remotely by conditions within the contemporary Graeco- 
Roman world to which Palestine politically belonged. Con- 
verts from among the Jews of the Dispersion had still another 
set of experiences, in which contact with Graeco-Roman 
life formed a more important item. Those who came over 
to Christianity from paganism — ^and these constituted by 
far the greater number of its adherents long before the close 
of our period — 'had still a different heritage, the reality and 
importance of which are too often minimized. The scope of 
the student's inquiry must be sufficiently comprehensive 
to include the whole range of different Christians' experience 
in contact with their varied environment during the first two 
centuries of our era. 

The developmental character of Christianity. — One more 
item must be noted in order to insure correct procedure. 
What conception of Christianity's nature is imphed in the 
foregoing definition of the historian's task? This type of 
study will necessarily view Christianity in terms of life — ■ 
the vital reHgious experience of actual people. This means 



244 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

that wide variations are to be recognized, since varying t3^es 
of personality set in different environments and drawing upon 
different historical heritages niust produce much complexity 
in real Kfe. While the historian will note items of uniformity 
among Christians he will not neglect items of diversity, 
which are quite as essential to a correct understanding of the 
actual religious life of beHevers. Nor will he attempt to 
define Christianity simply in terms of static quantities of 
belief, ritual, or practice. The behefs which different Chris- 
tians held, the forms they employed in worship, and the 
decrees they enacted for the conduct of the ideal Hfe must 
all receive due attention, but the true historian will ever 
remember that his work is not completed when he has merely 
catalogued and evaluated these products of early Christian 
Hving. His ultimate task is to interpret the great complex 
of actual Kfe out of which these things came and of which 
they formed an integral part. Thus Christianity must be 
conceived as thoroughly vital and developmental in its nature. 

Literature. — G. W. Knox, article "Christianity" in the Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica, nth ed. (Cambridge: University Press, 1910), VI, 
280-91; S. J. Case, The Evolution of Early Christianity (Chicago: The 
University of Chicago Press, 1914), pp. 1-47; G. B. Smith, "Christianity 
and History," Biblical World, XLIV (19 14), 409-16. 

II. THE CONTEMPORARY GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD 

The early Christians' world, taken in the large, was Graeco- 
Roman. At the outset their relations with this larger world 
were at second hand through the medium of Judaism. But 
since Judaism itself was really a part of Graeco-Roman life as 
a whole, and more especially since Christians in the second 
and successive generations were not only brought into intimate 
touch with gentile Hfe but were actually a part of it by birth 
and training, the first duty of the student of early Christianity 
is to acquaint himself with conditions in the Graeco-Roman 
world. 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 245 

Political conditions. — In order to obtain a proper per- 
spective for viewing the political history contemporary with 
early Christianity, one should begin with the rule of Alexander 
the Great (336-323 B.C.). The course of history under his 
successors (the ''Diadochi") and their descendants (the 
''Epigoni"), and particularly the rule of the Seleucids in 
Syria and the Ptolemies in Egypt, ought to be followed with 
some care. Otherwise it will be impossible to understand some 
of the most important phases in the experience of. the Jewish 
people as well as the gentile conditions of life which became 
fixed at this time and remained substantially unchanged in 
many respects even after the Romans conquered the East. 
But attention must center particularly upon the Roman 
period, especially from the time of Augustus on, when the 
pohtical history of the Roman Empire had a very important 
bearing upon the life of both Jews and Christians. A knowl- 
edge of this background is essential to an understanding of 
such significant events as the death of John the Baptist and of 
Jesus, the fall of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. and its destruction in 
135 A.D., the long imprisonments of Paul and ultimately his 
death as well as that of many other Christian leaders, the 
persecutions which the Christian movement suffered from time 
to time, and its ultimate recognition as a state-religion. 

The status of society. — The social situation is a more 
difficult subject to study, but one of equal importance for the 
student of Christian origins. In the first place the economic 
conditions of that age were largely responsible for the dis- 
persion of the Jews throughout the Mediterranean lands 
as well as for that free movement of the masses which con- 
tributed so significantly to the spread of early Christianity. 
The economic situation also had much to do with the dissemi- 
nation of many pagan faiths over the territory where Christian- 
ity later came to be estabHshed, and these cults accordingly 
constituted an important factor in the history of Christian 
expansion. The social distinctions of the time must also be 



246 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

studied, not merely for the Kght they shed upon the ante- 
cedents of the Christian movement, but because the expanding 
life of the new movement was so closely linked with the 
general social status. The new cosmopolitanism which had 
resulted from the establishment of world-empire; the rapid 
development of individualism called forth by the breaking 
down of the narrow nationalism of earlier times; the mingling 
of many different nationaHties at the great centers of popu- 
lation ; the social gradations distinguishing slave from master, 
rich from poor, ignorant from learned — these are topics about 
which the student of early Christianity should possess accurate 
and fairly full information. The general cultural status of 
Graeco-Roman civilization ought also to be studied for the 
light it sheds upon the personnel of the gentile churches and 
the conditions under which the missionary propaganda was 
carried on. A knowledge of the ways in which the youth 
were educated, the intellectual standards of the time, the 
popular modes of entertainment such as the sophist provided, 
and the types of literature which found favor with the people 
of that age will aid very materially in our study of the early 
Christian movement. 

The religious situation. — The religious side of Graeco- 
Roman life, while inseparably bound up with political, social, 
and cultural conditions, is so important for the study of Chris- 
tian origins that it deserves special attention. The outstand- 
ing religious characteristic of the period was its syncretism. 
This was exceedingly complex, but for convenience of treat- 
ment some attempt must be made to single out in a general 
way the chief factors in this compKcated hfe. The student 
may select the following topics for investigation: 

I. A study of survivals from the ethnic faiths of an earlier 
age is of value. Since Graeco-Roman civilization occupied 
territory that had nourished older cultures such as those of 
Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine, 
pre-Hellenistic religious survivals naturally played an impor- 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 247 

tant role in later times. To these oriental heritages must be 
added the popular polytheism of Greece and Rome. To be 
sure, the ancient cults were often considerably affected by the 
new conditions of the later age, but these changes frequently in- 
creased rather than lessened the significance of the ancient faith. 

2. The so-called mystery-religions form a sufficiently dis- 
tinct phenomenon to receive independent treatment. In 
the main they were, indeed, survivals from an earher age, but 
they attained unique prominence and importance in Graeco- 
Roman times. In Greece the Eleusinian mysteries are most 
deserving of attention, though other cults of similar type, such 
as the mysteries of Dionysus, ought not to be ignored. A 
study of the oriental mysteries which in this period spread far 
and wide over the Mediterranean lands will also prove very 
instructive. The more important of these, to which study 
should be directed, are the cults of Cybele and Attis in Phrygia, 
Ishtar and Tammuz in Babylonia, Ashtart and Eshmun in 
Phoenicia, Atargatis and Hadad in Cilicia and Syria, Aphro- 
dite and Adonis in Syria and Cyprus, and Isis and Osiris- 
Serapis in Egypt. 

3. A third type of Graeco-Roman rehgion, which had con- 
siderable influence, was the worship of the ruler. The attempt 
of the Seleucids to impose this worship upon the Jews had 
much to do with the Jewish uprising of Maccabean times, and 
emperor-worship under the Romans affected considerably the 
life of both Jews and Christians. Some of the most character- 
istic experiences and doctrines of early Christianity were the 
result of contact with this pervasive phenomenon against 
which Christians uniformly protested. 

4. The popular philosophy of that age was so closely 
Hnked with rehgion as to furnish a distinct item in the actual 
reHgious situation. The Epicurean and Stoic schools are of 
greatest importance for the student of first- and second- 
century Christianity, before neo-Platonism gained pre-emi- 
nence. Stoicism in particular had permeated the Hfe of the 



248 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

masses and was being vigorously preached by missionaries 
who styled themselves apostles of Zeus sent to proclaim a 
message of deliverance to the common man. Acquaintance 
with both the content and the form of their preaching will often 
prove helpful as shedding Hght upon the early Christian 
missionary's task and methods. 

5. Certain types of religious speculation, mostly oriental 
in origin, were also common in this age. A knowledge of these 
may be obtained by studying such subjects as astrology, 
pre-Christian Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and ancient mysticism 
in general. 

Literature. — Greek and Roman authors of the period wrote volumi- 
nously. Many of their writings are still extant, for which see the standard 
works on Greek and Roman literature. H. N. Fowler, A History of 
Ancient Greek Literature (New York: Appleton, 1902), and J. W. 
Mackail, Latin Literature (New York: Scribner, 191 2), are good brief 
treatments. For comprehensive treatments one may consult W. von 
Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur, 3 vols., 5. Aufl. (Miinchen: 
Beck, 1911-13), and M. Schanz, Geschichte der romischen Litteratur, 
6 vols., 2.-3. Aufl. (Miinchen: Beck, 1905-14). To these literary sources 
we must add large quantities of non-literary documents, such as papyri 
and inscriptions, of great importance for our study. 

As for modern study of the Graeco-Roman world, the main outlines 
of the subject are given in S. J. Case, The Evolution of Early Christianity, 
chaps, iii, vii-ix, where literature is also cited in full. The following will 
be found especially useful: E. Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas and 
Usages upon the Christian Church (London: Williams & Norgate, 1890); 
P. Wendland, Die hellenistisch-romische Kultur in ihren Beziehungen zu 
Judentum und Christentum, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 2); A. 
Deissmann, Licht vom Osten, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1909; English 
translation, Light from the Ancient East [New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 
1910]); S. Angus, The Environment of Early Christianity (New York: 
Scribner, 1915). 

III. CONTEMPORARY JUDAISM 

The Jewish Dispersion. — The territorial distribution of 
the Jewish people in Graeco-Roman times was extensive. 
Those Jews who Hved outside Palestine were greatly in the 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 249 

majority, and from the time of the Exile on they were scattered 
widely over the whole territory. Large numbers of them lived 
in the Tigris-Euphrates valley as well as in Egypt, where they 
became very numerous under the Ptolemies. In Syria and 
Asia Minor they constituted a large percentage of the popula- 
tion in early Christian times, and throughout other parts 
of the Mediterranean world they were everywhere in evi- 
dence. Josephus (Ant., XIV, vii, 2) reports Strabo as saying, 
''One cannot readily find any place in the world which has not 
received this tribe and been taken possession of by it." Thus 
the significance of the Jewish Dispersion for the history of 
early Christianity was very great, not simply because Chris- 
tianity in gentile lands naturally built upon the foundation 
which Judaism had laid, but also because the Judaism out 
of which Christianity in Palestine grew had already been 
impressed by forces from without. 

Jewish life outside Palestine. — In studying the status of 
the Jews in the Diaspora several items should be noted. They 
occupied a distinct position within the civic life of an ancient 
city and enjoyed many special favors. They sometimes 
stood high socially, even holding important official positions; 
yet as a whole they carefully preserved their distinctiveness. 
Since they maintained a separate community organization, 
their religious life was in so far as possible modeled after that 
of their kinsmen in Palestine and they retained a very Kvely 
interest in the Holy Land. But the stimulus of their gentile 
environment was not without effect upon their religion, nor 
were they by any means impervious to the influences of 
foreign culture. A Philo or a Josephus, though an aggressive 
defender of the Jewish faith, was quite different from a 
Palestinian rabbi. The fact that Judaism retained its integ- 
rity, notwithstanding these widely varying conditions, and 
even carried on a proselytizing propaganda, shows that we 
must not regard it as merely an isolated Palestinian phe- 
nomenon without any significant vitahty. Inquiry into the 



250 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

vigorous religious life of the Jews of the Diaspora, and a recog- 
nition of the close connection they maintained with Palestine, 
should do much to prevent the student from falling into this 
not uncommon error of depreciating the vitality of Judaism. 

The political history of Palestine. — ^A brief sketch of the 
poKtical history of the Palestinian Jews is essential to an 
understanding of their religion. This study may begin 
with Alexander the Great, but its importance increases with 
the time of the Seleucids and Ptolemies. The most significant 
point in the history of this general period is the revolt of the 
Maccabees. From this time on the political activities of the 
Jews must be followed with some care since their rehgious life 
is very closely connected with national activities. Not only 
during the rule of the Maccabean princes, but after the sub- 
jugation of Palestine by the Romans, politics and religion went 
hand in hand. It was this situation which produced the 
different Jewish parties and raised many of the perplexing 
problems which were discussed by both Jews and Christians. 
Thus familiarity with the political experiences of the Jewish 
people during the period from the outbreak of the Maccabean 
revolt in 167 B.C. to the destruction of Jerusalem in 135 a.d. 
is absolutely essential to an understanding of the rise and 
early history of Christianity. 

The status of the people. — Similar consideration should 
be given to the social, economic, and cultural status of the 
people. The daily occupation of many persons consisted in 
tilHng the soil and raising cattle; others were fishermen, 
artisans, or merchants; others followed a professional career, 
being priests, scribes, or physicians; many others were 
ordinary day laborers and some were slaves, although most 
persons of the latter class were probably of foreign birth. 
These different occupations yielded an abundance to some, 
while others lived in poverty. As a rule the priestly class 
was well-to-do, but the common people were less prosperous 
and the payment of tribute to Rome, together with the col- 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 251 

lections for the temple at Jerusalem, often proved exceedingly 
burdensome. In matters of education and general culture, 
interest centered chiefly in the Scriptures. But these writings 
were in a language which the common people no longer under- 
stood, and apparently few of the Aramaic-speaking populace 
ever became proficient in the use of Hebrew. The education 
of the upper classes was more extensive. Those who could 
afford leisure for study attended the school of some noted 
rabbi, devoting themselves to the study and interpretation 
of the Scriptures. Other Jewish youths with a broader 
outlook, such as Josephus, for example, added to their strictly 
Jewish training a smattering of Hellenistic education. These 
various conditions must be understood by the student who 
wishes to know the actual situation in which Jesus, his imme- 
diate followers, and many of the early missionaries of the new 
rehgion had lived in their youth. 

Religious conditions. — The more distinctly religious side of 
life among the Jews is a subject of especial importance. 

I. Religion was fostered and came to expression in differ- 
ent ways, but it centered about three chief institutions, viz., 
the Temple, the Synagogue, and the Law. Associated with 
the Temple were the elaborate priestly organization, the 
national tribunal known as the Sanhedrin, the sacrificial 
system, and the great national festivals of Passover, Pentecost, 
and Tabernacles. The Synagogue was also a very important 
local factor in the life of the people. It served as town- 
house, school, and church — a community center for the dis- 
trict in which it stood. In the third place the Law, together 
with the persons and means employed in its interpretation, 
occupied a large place in the hfe of the people. To them the 
Law embodied God's will for every phase of thought and 
action, hence the especial significance attaching to the pro- 
fession of the scribe and to the oral tradition by means of 
which the ancient teaching was elaborated and made appli- 
cable to the conditons of life in later times. 



252 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

2. The various parties, though in reaHty their significance 
was often quite as great poHtically as reHgiously, not only 
represent special phases in the development of Jewish rehgion 
but constitute the setting for much early Christian activity 
and thinking. The Pharisees and Sadducees are the parties 
most frequently mentioned, but the Zealots ought not to be 
ignored. In fact, their place in the history and life of the 
period is probably greater than we have been accustomed 
to imagine on the basis of the infrequency with which they 
are mentioned in the New Testament. Still other parties, 
such as the Zadokites and the Essenes, represent important 
tendencies within Judaism at the beginning of the Chris- 
tian era. 

3. Furthermore, the religious thinking of that day had 
crystalKzed into several distinct doctrines which suppHed a 
point of departure, and often largely the content, for early 
Christian speculations. The different notions which the Jews 
entertained regarding the Kingdom of God, the relation in 
which they set the Messiah to the Kingdom, and the plans 
which they outlined for the consummation of their hopes are 
all items of fundamental significance for the rise and early 
development of Christianity. 

Jewish literature. — Finally, it should be noted that 
the vital experience of the Jewish people found partial expres- 
sion in a distinctly religious Hterature, a portion of which has 
come down to us. Sometimes students of early Christianity, 
in pursuing the literary side of their investigation, have 
passed directly from the Old Testament to the earliest 
Christian writings. But in the interim, and contemporary 
with the rise of a Christian literature, important Jewish 
documents were produced, a knowledge of which is now 
recognized as absolutely essential to the proper equipment of 
one who is to study early Christianity. This survey of 
Hterature should include not only those books commonly 
referred to as Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, but all other 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 253 

Jewish documents, especially such ext-ensive works as the 
writings of Philo and Josephus and the earlier portions of the 
Talmud. 

Literature.— The two standard collections of extra-biblical Jewish 
documents are E. Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des 
Alten Testaments, 2 vols. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1900), and R. H. Charles, 
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, 2 vols. (Oxford: 
Clarendon Press, 1913). These, it should be remembered, do not con- 
tain Philo, Josephus, or the Talmud. The best critical edition of Philo 
is that of L. Cohn and P. Wendland, Philonis Alexandrini opera (Berlin: 
Reimer, 1896-) , of which six volumes have already appeared. A German 
translation under the editorship of L. Cohn, Die Werke Philos von 
Alexandria (Breslau: Marcus, 1909), is in course of preparation, and 
two volumes have already been published. There is an English trans- 
lation (out of print) by C. D. Yonge in four volumes (London: Bohn, 
1854-55). The works of Josephus are available in the critical edition 
of B. Niese, Flavii losephi opera, 6 vols. (Berlin: Weidmann, 1888-95). 
A convenient English version is that of W. Whiston newly edited by 
D. S. Margoliouth, The Works of Flavins Josephus (New York: Button 
[n.d.]). For literature on the Talmud see M. Mielziner, Introduction 
to the Talmud, 2d ed. (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1902), or H. L. 
Strack, Einleitung in den Talmud, 4. Aufl. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1908). 

The most comprehensive modern work on Judaism in the period 
under discussion is E. Schiirer, Geschichte des jUdischen Volkes im Zeit- 
alter Jesu Christi, 3 vols., 4. Aufl. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1901-9; English 
translation. History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, 7 vols. 
[New York: Scribner, 1891]). There are also many briefer but valuable 
works, e.g., W. Fairweather, The Background of the Gospels (New York: 
Scribner, 1908); S. Mathews, The History of New Testament Times in 
Palestine, 2d ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1910); O. Holtzmann, Neu- 
testamentliche Zeitgeschichte, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1906); W. 
Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums in neutestamentlichen Zeitalter, 2. 
Aufl. (Berlin: Reuther und Reichard, 1906); K.'Btxth.oltt, Diejildische 
Religion von der Zeit Ezras his zum Zeitalter Christi (Tiibingen: Mohr, 
191 1); J.JnsteijLesJuifsdansrempire romain, 2 vols. (Paris: Geuthner, 
1914). 

IV. THE WORK OF JESUS 

Jesus' relation to Judaism. — ^John the Baptist, Jesus, and 
the disciples immediately associated with him were all Jews, 



254 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION - 

and their activity constituted an integral part of the Judaism 
of their day. In a history of Judaism they would take their 
place beside the Zealots, the Zadokites, the Essenes, the 
hermit Banus, and other reformers and preachers whose 
activity was called forth by the conditions of unrest peculiar 
to that particular period in the history of the Jewish people. 
But the reform movement begun by John the Baptist, con- 
tinued and transformed by Jesus, perpetuated and expanded 
by his followers, ultimately became differentiated from 
Judaism and was called Christianity. Hence the student of 
early Christianity quite properly emphasizes the work of 
Jesus as especially important for the history of the new 
religion's beginnings. 

Jesus' relation to John the Baptist. — ^At first Jesus himself 
was a disciple of John, and the earliest stages in his activity 
cannot be .understood without first noting the character of 
John's work. Full knowledge of John's career and message is 
difficult to obtain. He appears to have been a vigorous 
moral reformer, a stormy preacher of the desert, who called 
upon men to repent and be baptized in preparation for the 
coming judgment. His activity brought to expression a 
prominent phase of Jewish faith, viz., the belief that ulti- 
mately God would interfere on Israel's behalf and establish 
a new order of things. John proclaimed the necessity of 
repentance and purification among Jews themselves as 
a preHminary to the consummation of their hope. His 
invectives were hurled against high and low ahke, but with 
disastrous results for the prophet himself. Herod Antipas 
became offended at his preaching, cast him into prison, and 
ultimately put him to death. Josephus {Ant., XVIII, v, 2) 
says that Herod feared lest John might instigate a revolt, 
a statement which may imply that John was disposed to 
dabble in poHtics. But of this we cannot be certain. We 
do know that the burden of his message was rehgious, and in 
this lay its significance for our present study. 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 255 

It is clear that Jesus received baptism at the hands of 
John, but in almost all other respects the relation between 
the two remains a perplexing problem. Among the early 
Christians who preserved our gospel tradition there was 
variation of opinion on many points. Some statements imply 
that John stood to Jesus in the relation of the promised 
Ehjah to the Messiah (Mark 1:2-5; 9- 11^13; cf. Matt. 
17:9-13), while other parts of the tradition make John dis- 
tinctly deny that he is Elijah (John 1:21). Similarly, in 
some sections of the narrative he positively affirms his belief 
in Jesus' messiahship and makes the announcement of this 
fact his chief mission (John 1:6-8, 19-34), yet in other con- 
nections his belief in the messiahship of Jesus is quite doubt- 
ful (Matt. 11:2-6; Luke 7:18-23). But apart from these 
attempts to define the official relationship of these two indi- 
viduals to one another, the question of more fundamental 
interest is what Jesus' personal reaction toward John's 
movement actually was and how far Jesus received from John 
vital stimulus for his own future work. This is the point of 
special interest for the historical student. The continuation 
of the Johannine movement side by side with the movement 
inaugurated by Jesus, though only incidentally mentioned in 
the New Testament (Mark 2:18; John 3:22; 4:1 ff.; Acts 
18:25; 19:35 f.), is also an important item for the early history 
of Christianity. 

The task of the biographer. — In examining Jesus' own 
career the student is confronted .at the outset by the fact 
that Jesus occupies a twofold position in the history of early 
Christianity. In the first place he gathered about him a 
group of hearers to whom he imparted instruction reflecting 
his own personal religious experience and living. Secondly, 
after his death he came to hold in the thinking of believers a 
new position at God's right hand in heaven. He now pos- 
sessed truly official dignity and was expected to return at an 
early date to set up the messianic kingdom upon earth. The 



256 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

consciousness of this distinction between the earthly Jesus of 
past history and the heavenly Christ of present faith is 
reflected in such a statement as Acts 2:36 to the effect that 
through the resurrection God had made the crucified Jesus to 
be both Lord and Christ (Messiah). 

Although the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith were 
thus originally distinguished, the meaning of this distinction 
was soon lost as behevers reflected upon the earthly career 
of Jesus in the light of their new-found faith in his heavenly 
exaltation. They were now able to see in many of his words 
and deeds a much more elevated significance than they had 
observed while he was with them. This failure to appreciate 
his full dignity while upon earth was not credited to 
any lack in him, but was quite their own fault. Either they 
had been unduly stupid, or else for some good reason their 
eyes for the moment had been blinded. By this course of 
reasoning they were able in the course of time to discover 
in the earthly fife of Jesus practically the same official 
dignity and glory which they now attached to his person in 
heaven. 

The task of the modern student of the Kfe of Jesus is 
made especially difficult by this situation. All the direct 
sources of information at present available date from a time 
when this process of reinterpreting the life of Jesus had been 
going on for twenty years or more. The problem could be 
easily solved if it were simply a Question of reproducing this 
or that picture of Jesus as set forth by one or another of his 
early interpreters. But today the task of the historian is 
much more difficult since he must endeavor to determine what 
features in the sources represent the early Christians' interest 
in the heavenly Christ and what data relate to the earthly 
Jesus as he actually appeared to the people who assoc^'ated 
with him during his public ministry. To be sure, the believers' 
new appreciation of Jesus after his death is as much — or 
more — a part of the history of early Christianity as is the 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 257 

story of his earthly career. But the former belongs in the 
history of the early community subsequent to his death, and 
not in a strictly historical biography of Jesus. 

The character of the sources. — In view of this peculiar 
problem the student ought first to note the general character of 
the sources of information and the varied portraits of Jesus 
there presented. 

Paul's epistles are the oldest extant Christian documents, 
but Paul is interested almost exclusively in Christ spiritually 
present in the believer and soon to come upon the clouds in 
glory. Yet it is worthy of note that Paul shows little or no 
disposition to superimpose the official dignity of the heavenly 
Christ upon the earthly Jesus. While, in Paul's thinking, 
Jesus was a pre-existent divine personality, his career upon 
earth was one of almost abnormal humihty and lowhness. 
In fact, this point is especially stressed by Paul (e.g., Phil. 
2:5 ff.). But, unfortunately for our present needs, Paul has 
mentioned only incidentally a few items in connection with 
the teaching and activity of Jesus. At an early date Paul 
had several points of intimate contact with Christians, and 
a careful reading of his epistles, with a view to discovering 
incidental information about Jesus' earthly career, may be 
expected to yield some valuable results (e.g.. Gal. 3:13; 
4:4; I Cor. 11:23 ff.; i5'5j H Cor. 8:9; 10:1; Rom. 7:1; 
15:3; Phil. 2:5). 

The Gospel of Mark shows much advance over Paul's 
letters in assigning official dignity to the earthly Jesus. The 
author of this Gospel is sufficiently well informed regarding the 
actual history to observe that this heightened significance 
of Jesus was not generally appreciated prior to his death by 
even his most intimate associates (e.g., 1:22; 4:41; 5:31; 
6:51 f.; 8:17-21,32; 9:10,32; 10:32). But Mark himself 
labors under no such limitations. The disciples had been 
unable to understand certain words and deeds of the earthly 
Jesus previous to his resurrection (cf. 9:9 f.)> but now he has 



258 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

arisen, and in the light of this new beHef Mark is able to under- 
stand everything. On the strength of this assurance he col- 
lects, arranges, and interprets the gospel story to meet the 
needs of the particular readers he has in mind, at the same 
time endeavoring to do justice to the person of Jesus as the 
ofhcial founder of the Kingdom of God on earth. Before this 
oldest extant gospel can be properly employed as a source of 
biographical information about Jesus, the pragmatic interests 
of the author must be taken carefully into account. 

The same demand must be met in the case of Matthew and 
Luke. While they use Mark as one of their chief sources, and 
so carry over into the career of Jesus Mark's interest in the 
heavenly Christ, they also attempt interpretations on their 
own account. In fact, they excel Mark in this art. The 
latter begins with the baptism as the moment when Jesus 
became distinctive through a special anointing by the Holy 
Spirit, but both Matthew and Luke point out that Jesus at 
the very first was begotten by the Hoty Spirit. The author 
of John carries the thought still farther, making the whole 
earthly career of Jesus virtually the activity of an incarnate 
Deity. A similar interest dominates the fragmentary remains 
of other ancient gospels, as well as the remainder of the New 
Testament books, in so far as they take any account at all of 
Jesus' earthly life. 

Since our sources of information are all interpretative in 
character, and strongly influenced by the Christians' later 
confidence in Jesus' official position as Messiah, the student 
must use rigid critical processes in treating these sources if he 
would recover even an approximately correct portrait of the 
historical individual Jesus as distinct from the heavenly 
Christ of primitive Christian faith. 

Tests for determining the historicity of tradition. — How 
can the historicity of tradition be fixed ? In the first place 
there is the test of literary analysis by means of which the 
older elements in the gospel story are recovered. Since a 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 259 

comparison of Matthew with Luke shows at a glance that 
they both used not only Mark but other common source 
materials not contained in Mark, it is possible to reconstruct 
in a fragmentary way a body of non-Markan tradition ante- 
dating both Matthew and Luke. This earlier document, or 
these earlier documents (Luke 1:1-4), are probably older 
than Mark, although they have not been directly used by 
him. In the case of Mark also it is possible to discover certain 
strata of tradition, such, for example, as the parables of 
chap. 4, which he probably took over from earlier documents. 
A thoroughgoing literary criticism will endeavor to fix as far as 
possible. the relative age of all the different constituent ele- 
ments which have gone into the making of gospel tradition as 
it exists at present. 

But literary criticism cannot be regarded as a final test 
of historicity. Even the oldest recoverable source was com- 
posed from ten to twenty years after Jesus' death, and the 
motives prompting composition were supplied by conditions 
within the expanding life of Christianity. While it is true 
that in these early days memory of the earthly Jesus was 
still fresher than in subsequent times, yet it is also true that 
Christianity in the earHer period had its pecuHar problems 
and ways of thinking, in the Hght of which the earliest recover- 
able document was composed. Its author must have selected, 
arranged, interpreted, and supplemented his materials if he 
sought to minister to. the needs of his immediate environment 
— and he could hardly have had any other motive for com- 
position. Nor is a portion of tradition which first comes to 
light in a later document — say in Luke only or in John only — • 
unhistorical simply in virtue of its late emergence. There were 
many persons who remembered Jesus and who talked much 
about him after his death, and it is not at all probable that all 
the rehable things said by them were taken up into the written 
sources used in common by Matthew, Luke, and John. It is 
quite possible that some perfectly rehable information may 



26o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

have come into the possession of one or another of these 
writers independently. 

Ultimately one must apply what may be called the prag- 
matic test for determining the historicity of tradition. If 
anything is ascribed to Jesus which is out of harmony, with 
the age and environment in which he lived, but is more closely 
akin to the problems arising during the expansion of the new 
movement in the years following his death, that feature in the 
tradition cannot be safely connected with the historical Jesus. 
Even if one should assume that Jesus may have anticipated 
the future situation, one must still reckon with the fact that 
certainly the disciples did not share this forward look, and 
consequently were unprepared for the reception of any such 
teaching. On the other hand, the work of Jesus, as deter- 
mined by his own particular situation, did influence extensively 
the subsequent career of his followers; hence many features 
in the life of the early Christian movement may reasonably be 
traced back to his words or deeds. Here the pragmatic test 
yields constructive results by pointing to items of later tra- 
dition which show logical continuity with the situation of 
earlier times. 

Chronological and geographical data. — ^The constructive 
task of the student of the life of Jesus revolves about certain 
main problems, one of which is the recovery of the chrono- 
logical and geographical outhne of Jesus' career. Mark, it 
may be observed, presents one schema, while John follows a 
very different outline. Matthew and Luke reproduce Mark 
in the main, although each makes a few unimportant changes. 
Neither Hterary criticism nor pragmatic considerations yield 
any very certain results in this field. The student may have 
to content himself with following the outhne of Mark, incom- 
plete and unsatisfactory as it is. Certainly no historian would 
attempt an uncritical fusion of the outhnes of John and 
Mark as a means of restoring the actual course of Jesus' 
career. 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY " 261 

Jesus' messianic consciousness. — The question of Jesus' 
self-consciousness has been much discussed in modern times. 
Did Jesus regard himself as the Jewish Messiah, and if so in 
what sense did he understand messiahship ? In order to 
answer these questions historically, the student must take his 
stand strictly within the Jewish world where Jesus himself 
lived. The national history of the Jewish people had been 
one long story of disappointed hopes. They had enjoyed a 
period of national independence under David and Solomon, 
but their subsequent history had been one series of successive 
subjugations by Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Macedonia, and 
Rome. During all this time their faith in their God Yahweh 
remained unshaken. They were his. chosen people and some 
day he would surely come to their aid, restoring their inde- 
pendence and elevating them to a position of supremacy 
among the nations. 

In Jesus' day this hope was current in two principal forms 
commonly termed by moderns (i) the national and (2) the 
apocalyptic. The former rested upon the expectation that a 
lineal descendant of David would arise when the time for 
Israel's deliverance arrived. This Davidic prince would be 
anointed — i.e., made Messiah (Anointed) — by God and 
would miraculously free the chosen people from all oppressors. 
It was this hope which prompted the numerous messianic 
uprisings in Palestine between the years 6 and 135 a.d. 
There were other Jews who had lost all faith in earthly princes, 
and so had abandoned the messianic hope in its Davidic 
form. Nevertheless they retained their faith in God and 
redefined their hope in terms of a purely heavenly Messiah, an 
angelic being without any earthly connections whatsoever. 
He was of purely divine origin but would assume the likeness 
of a man (cf . Dan. 7 : 13) when he came upon the clouds to 
set up the new kingdom. With his appearing the present 
order of existence would come to an end and the Jewish 
nation would be re-established in purity and peace upon a 



262 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

miraculously renovated earth. Since the Messiah of this 
new kingdom was to be ''revealed" from heaven, this type of 
hope has been termed the ''apocalyptic." 

What were Jesus' views regarding the Jewish messianic 
hope? The difficulty of answering this question has been 
greatly enhanced by the confusion of opinion which prevails 
in the Gospels. At one time he is given Davidic credentials, 
and so is made the fulfiller of the national hope (cf . Luke 2:11). 
At other times he is represented as denying the Davidic 
ancestry of the Messiah (Mark 12:35-37), ^-nd he even afhrms 
that after death he himself will come upon the clouds and thus 
fulfil the apocalyptic rather than the Davidic hope (Mark 
8:39; 9:1; 14:61 f.). In still other connections, notably in 
the Gospel of John, he abandons Jewish imagery almost 
entirely and defines his messiahship in terms of Hellenistic 
speculation regarding the incarnate Logos. Another favorite 
interpretation of Jesus' messianic consciousness, popular in 
later times, bases his claim to official dignity upon his sense of 
special ethical and spiritual kinship with God the Father. 

No doubt the situation in Jesus' own day was far simpler 
than that depicted in the Gospels, or in later Christian think- 
ing when different interpreters combined different types of 
messianic terminology in an endeavor to estabhsh by every 
possible means the superior official dignity of the heavenly 
Christ of Christian faith. The modern student is confronted 
by the difficult task of threading his way back through the 
almost inextricable tangle of later opinion to the more primi- 
tive situation of Jesus. The following possibihties in Jesus' 
thinking have to be considered : 

I. Did he adopt the national hope, expecting a dehverance 
to be accomplished by means 6f a revolution against Rome, 
whether this was to be led by himself or by another ? There 
certainly is very scanty evidence, for supposing that he enter- 
tained any such notion, although it has sometimes been 
assumed that his thinking moved in this realm. 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 263 

2. Did he expect redemption through the coming of an 
angelic deHverer ? This was the natural alternative for a Jew 
of his day who rejected the revolutionary program. But this 
apocalyptic hope in its purely Jewish form allowed no place 
for a present earthly Messiah. The apocalyptic Messiah 
was to be a purely heavenly being. 

3. Did Jesus so transform the apocalyptic hope as to give 
the divine heavenly Messiah a preliminary human career upon 
earth ? He is thought by many modern interpreters to have 
done so, notwithstanding the difficulty of finding in his 
environment an adequate incentive for so radical a change in 
Jewish thinking. Moreover, it is very easy to see how the 
disciples, disappointed in their first hope that the earthly 
Jesus would lead a messianic revolution when the fitting 
moment arrived (cf. Mark 8:32 f.; Luke 24:21; Acts 1:6), 
might apply the apocalyptic imagery to him after his death. 
In their new faith, attained through the resurrection appear- 
ances, he was now a heavenly angelic being capable of func- 
tioning as apocalyptic Messiah. 

4. Did he anticipate Hellenistic speculation regarding his 
personaHty, considering himself the Messiah on metaphysical 
grounds ? This view is not commonly held by critical scholars 
today, although the importance of this item in the history of 
Chris tology is generally recognized. 

5. Did Jesus claim official messianic dignity on the ground 
of close personal religious fellowship with God ? There is 
much to prove that his hfe was one of rich spiritual attain- 
ments, but many students now recognize that there are very 
slight grounds for supposing that any person of that day, how- 
ever rich his spiritual experience might be, would find in this 
fact a basis for behef in official messiahship. 

The miracles of Jesus — Among early Christians interest 
in the miraculous character of both the person and work of 
Jesus kept pace with the growing desire to emphasize the 
official dignity of his earthly career. Paul, for example, 



264 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

gives no intimation that the earthly Jesus performed miracles, 
although Paul makes ability to work miracles in the name of 
the exalted Christ a distinctive credential of the new religion 
(cf. Gal. 3:5; II Cor. 12:12; I Cor. 12:28). In the earlier 
elements of gospel tradition there is also very Httle said 
about any miracles of Jesus. Here his distinctiveness is 
shown more strikingly by his religious message than by his 
marvelous deeds. But in Mark he is first of all the miracle- 
worker. The wild beasts are rendered harmless by his pres- 
ence in the wilderness, and the people in the synagogue of 
Capernaum are astonished at his power over the demons. It 
is not his religious message which strikes them with awe, but 
the miraculous power of his commands — ''with authority he 
commandeth even the unclean spirits and they obey him" 
(Mark 1:22, 27). Matthew and Luke follow Mark in stress- 
ing the miraculous. And in John Jesus' whole career is one 
glorious display of supernatural wisdom and power. 

This growth of interest in the miraculous as a means of 
heightening the dignity of the earthly Jesus was especially 
appropriate to a Hellenistic environment. Gentiles were 
particularly susceptible to the marvelous as attesting heroes 
and divinities. Heroes like Hercules and deified emperors 
like Augustus had, according to popular behef , been born of a 
divine father and a human mother. Such stories were widely' 
current and highly esteemed. Heroes and rulers also worked 
miracles, as happened in the case of Vespasian, for instance. 
He once healed a man with a withered hand, also a blind man, 
in Alexandria where ''many miracles occurred, by which the 
favor of heaven and a sort of bias in the powers toward Ves- 
pasian were manifested" (Tacitus Hist. iv. 81). As Chris- 
tians themselves performed miracles in the name of Jesus, 
competing with the ever-present magician and with vigorous 
heahng cults like those of Asklepios, the value of a miraculously 
begotten and miracle-working Jesus was increasingly appre- 
ciated. 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 265 

But in Jesus' Jewish environment the situation was some- 
what different. There probably were some Jewish magicians 
and exorcists in Palestine at that time, and they doubtless 
enjoyed a measure of popularity, especially among the lower 
classes. Yet their practices were prohibited in the Law, and 
persons suspected of cultivating these arts were frowned 
upon by the authorities (Deut. 18 : 9-14 ; Acts 4:7). Further- 
more, miracles were not employed extensively to attest 
Jewish worthies. They did, to be sure, work wonders on 
occasion, but their chief significance lay in their teaching, by 
which they communicated a message from God to his chosen 
people. In spite of the miracles Moses wrought, he was 
revered chiefly as the giver of the Law; while great prophets 
like Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were almost 
exclusively God's spokesmen with no credentials other than 
the words they uttered. Hence it was very natural that 
the earliest element of gospel tradition, taking shape in 
Palestine among Jewish Christians and for use in the Jewish 
mission, should have given almost no place to the miracle- 
element in the career of the earthly Jesus, but should set in the 
foreground his remarkable teaching. 

These are the main facts which the student has to take into 
account in discussing the question of Jesus' miraculous person 
and work. Two chief questions to be decided are: (i) Did 
miracles figure as prominently in Jesus' own career as they do 
in Mark's portrait of him? (2) How far are the stories of 
Jesus' miraculous birth prompted by a conviction on the part 
of early interpreters that Jesus must have been thus divinely 
begotten since he surely excelled all other heroes who were 
similarly authenticated ? 

The personal religion of Jesus. — ^The task of recovering 
information about Jesus' personal religious Hving is less 
difficult than that of determining the truth either about his 
messianic consciousness or about his miracles. In the 
nature of the case the personal religion of Jesus did not lend 



266 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

itself so readily to the purposes of apologetic on behalf of the 
heavenly Christ. There was, to be sure, a tendency to 
eliminate from his hfe all genuine personal rehgious experience 
and activity, as well as a disposition to make him the ideal 
Christian of later times. But these tendencies may be dis- 
covered with comparative ease, and our abundant information 
about Jewish life in Jesus' day, together with the information 
recoverable from the Gospels, enables one to reconstruct a 
fairly distinct picture of Jesus' own religious career. In 
attempting to restore this portrait the student should have in 
mind such topics as the following: 

1 . Jesus received a rich heritage from his Jewish home and 
family connections. He was not a trained rabbi but a village 
carpenter, yet he was devoutly religious. Under such cir- 
cumstances his religion could hardly be of the scholastic type, 
but would contain more emotional and mystical features. 

2. Jesus employed with particular vividness the figures of 
fatherhood and sonship to portray the ideal relationship 
between God and man. In this connection we are reminded 
that Jesus had listened to John the Baptist preach about an 
angry God for whose coming in judgment men must prepare 
themselves. When Jesus began independent work he seems 
to have done so under a conviction that God would help men 
prepare because he really loved men. 

3. The method of Jesus is also striking. This perhaps 
reveals more clearly than anything else the real genius of his 
religion. John preached in the wilderness where men came 
to him, and the professional rabbi often established a school 
to which pupils resorted, but Jesus went to the people. He 
traveled about among the synagogues, he talked to crowds in 
the city street or beside the sea, and apparently sought espe- 
cially to reach the masses. This method was well suited to 
produce trouble for the teacher in case his message proved to 
be unwelcome to the authorities, but it accorded well with 
Jesus' notion of God's desire to help all men. 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 267 

4. Jesus seems to have worked under the pressure of oppo- 
sition during almost his entire career. His aggressive method 
tended to arouse hostility, and the mystical strain in his reli- 
gion, together with his apparent bias toward nonconformity, 
made it difhcult for him to understand the Jewish leaders of the 
day and impossible for them to understand him. Conse- 
quently his was the religious experience of one who suffered 
persecution even unto martyrdom. 

5. One of the most significant items in the history of early 
Christianity is the fact that Jesus' religious personaHty 
impressed itself so strongly upon an inner group of his dis- 
ciples. His Jewish heritages, his mystical leanings, his 
aggressiveness, and his persistence even under persecution 
were all reproduced more or less perfectly in the careers of his 
followers. The power of his influence upon them was remark- 
able, and this fact serves to reveal his own character as a 
religious individual. 

Jesus' place in early Christianity. — Although Jesus was 
put to death before any formal organization of the Christian 
movement had taken place, still he is commonly regarded as 
the founder of this organization. To be sure, as the details 
of organization were worked out to meet later necessities there 
was a natural disposition to seek the authority of Jesus for the 
course of the development. He was now thought to have 
accepted baptism by John in order to estabhsh the Christian 
rite — ''thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness" (Matt. 
3:15). It was also believed that Jesus had installed Peter as 
head of the new organization (Matt. 16:18 f.). The last 
meal which Jesus had eaten informally with the disciples now 
came to be viewed as the deliberate establishment of a Chris- 
tian rite which he had designed to be perpetuated in his 
memory (Luke 22:19; I Cor. 11:25-27). Similarly, after 
the leaders of the new movement rather tardily arrived at 
the conviction of a world-wide mission they felt assured 
that Jesus himself had intended this result and had in fact 



268 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

commissioned them to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 
28:19). These matters all belong in the history of the expand- 
ing movement subsequent to Jesus' death, and Jesus cannot 
be regarded as the immediate founder of the new ecclesiastical 
organization which gradually evolved in the ApostoHc Age. 

But is he not the author of the Christian doctrine, and so 
the founder of Christianity in the sense that he authenticated 
its theology? On this point also historical investigation 
casts some doubts. Early Christian dogma centered about 
the official heavenly Christ and only gradually did believers 
come to think of the earthly Jesus as authenticating the spe- 
cifically new doctrines of Christianity. In fact, the new 
movement ''Christianity" took its name, not from Jesus, 
but from the exalted Christ. 

Nevertheless Jesus' actual contribution to the rise of 
Christianity is really more significant than might at first sight 
appear. But the historian must look for this significance in 
the sphere of personal daily contact between Jesus and his 
associates rather than in the realm of formality and officialism. 
It was in daily hfe that the disciples received their most endur- 
ing impressions of him, as well as those ideals of piety and 
devotion exemplified in the propagation of their new faith. 

Literature: — On John the Baptist see W. Baldensperger, Der Prolog 
des vierten Evangeliums (Freiburg: Mohr, 1898); H. Oort, ^'MattheusX 
en de Johannes- Gemeenten," Theologisch Tijdschrift, XL VII (1908), 299- 
^^:^; M. Dibelius, Die urchristliche Uberlieferung von Johannes dem 
Tdufer (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 191 1). Of less value 
is A. Blakiston, John the Baptist and His Relation to Jesus (London: Ben- 
nett, 1912). 

Books on the life of Jesus are legion. Most of them are critically 
summarized in A. Schweitzer, Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung, 
2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1913; English translation, The Quest of the 
Historical Jesus [London: Black, 1910]). A less detailed but more 
readable summary is given by H. Weinel, Jesus im neunzehnten Jahr- 
hundert, 8. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1907; English translation with 
additions, H. Weinel and A. G. Widgery, Jesus in the Nineteenth Century 
and After [New York: Scribner, 1914]). The literature on the recently 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 269 

debated question of Jesus' existence is listed and appraised in S. J. Case, 
The Historicity of Jesus (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 191 2) . 

One group of lives of Jesus may be termed harmonistic, since they 
combine the gospel data without attempting to estimate the relative 
historical reliability of the different elements in the tradition. Typical 
of this class is A. Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 
2 vols., 8th ed. (New York: Longmans, 1896). 

Representatives of more critical views differ somewhat widely 
among themselves. The earlier stages of critical work may be seen in 
D. F. Strauss, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined, translated from the 
fourth German edition (New York: Macmillan, 1898); T. Keim, The 
History of Jesus ofNazara, 6 vols., translated from the German (London: 
Williams & Norgate, 1876-83) ; W. Beyschlag, Das Leben Jesu, 2 Bde., 
3. Aufl. (Halle a. S.: Strien, 1893); B. Weiss, Das Leben Jesu, 4. Aufl. 
(Stuttgart: Gotta, 1902; English translation. The Life of Jesus, 3 vols. 
[New York: Scribner, 1883-89]). 

Among more recent writers some rely chiefly upon Mark, with its. 
apocalj^tic emphasis, to furnish the most accurate historical picture 
of Jesus; e.g., O. Holtzmann, Das Leben Jesu (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1901; 
English translation. The Life of Jesus [New York: Macmillan, 1904]) ; W. 
Sanday, The Life of Christ in Recent Research (New York: Oxford Uni- 
sity Press, 1907); A. Loisy, Jesus et la tradition evangelique (Paris: 
Nourry, 19 10). 

Other biographers make the non-Markan materials common to 
Matthew and Luke (i.e., the "Logia," or "Q") more normative; e.g., 
W. Bousset, Jesus, 3. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1907; English translation, 
Jesus [New York: Putnam, 1906]); A. Reville, Jesus de Nazareth (Paris: 
Fischbacher, 1897); C. Piepenbring, Jesus historique (Paris: Nourry, 
1909); G. H. Gilbert, Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 1912); F. L. 
Anderson, The Man of Nazareth (New York: Macmillan, 1914). 

Special studies on Jesus' messianic consciousness, stressing the 
apocalyptic side of his thinking, are J. Weiss, Die Predigt Jesu vom Reiche 
Gottes, 2." Aufl. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1900); W. 
Baldensperger, Das Selbstbewusstsein Jesu im Lichte der messianischen 
Hofnungen seiner Zeit, 2. Aufl. (Strassburg: Heitz, 1892); H. J. Holtz- 
mann, Z)a.s we.yjfamjc/je 5ez£^w5^/.yem /e.y^ (Tubingen : Mohr, 1907); E. F. 
Scott, The Kingdom and the Messiah (New York: Scribner, 191 1); S. 
Mathews, The Messianic Hope in the New Testament (Chicago: The 
University of Chicago Press, 1905). Works which subordinate apoca- 
lypticism in Jesus' consciousness are, for example, E. von Dobschutz, 
The Eschatology of the Gospels (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1910); 



270 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

H. L. Jackson, The Eschatology of Jesus (London: Macmillan, 1913). 
All messianic consciousness is denied to Jesus in N. Schmidt, The Prophet 
of Nazareth (New York: Macmillan, 1905); W. Wrede, Das M'essiasge- 
heimniss in den Evangelien (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 
1901); F. Goblet d'Alviella, VEvolution du dogme catholique, I, Les 
Origines (Paris: Nourry, 191 2). Cf. also H. B. Sharman, The Teaching 
of Jesus about the Future (Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 
1909). 

On the miraculous features in the Gospels see J. M. Thompson, 
Miracles in the New Testament (London: Arnold, 191 2); W. Soltau, Hat 
Jesus Wunder getan? (Leipzig: Dieterich, 1903); P. Lobstein, Die Lehre 
von der Ubernatilrlichen Geburt Christi, 2. Aufl, (Freiburg: Mohr, 1896; 
English translation, The Virgin Birth of Christ [New York: Putnam, 
1903]) ; W. Soltau, Die Geburtsgeschichte Jesu Christi (Leipzig: Dieterich, 
1902; English translation. The Birth of Jesus Christ [London: Black, 
1903]); A. Meyer, Die Auferstehung Christi (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1905); 
K. Lake, The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (New 
York: Putnam, 1907). 

For the teaching of Jesus the following books are most worthy of 
note: H. H. Wendt, Die Lehre Jesu, 2 Bde., 2. Aufl. (Gottingen: Vanden- 
hoeck und Ruprecht, 1901 ; English translation of second volume, The 
Teaching of Jesus, 2 vols. [New York: Scribner, 1892]); A. Jiilicher, 
Die Gleichnisreden Jesu, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1910); P. Wernle, 
Die Anfdnge unserer Religion, 2. Aufl. (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1904, pp. 1-82; 
English translation. The Beginnings of Christianity, 2 vols. [New York: 
Putnam, 1903-4], I, 1-116); H. J. Holtzmann, Lehrbuch der neutesta- 
mentlichen Theologie, 2 Bde., 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1911), I, 159- 
420; H. Weinel, Biblische Theologie des Neuen Testaments, 2. Aufl. 
(Tubingen: Mohr, 1913), pp. 43-230. 

V. PALESTINIAN JEWISH CHRISTIANITY 

Relative importance of the period. — The Christian move- 
ment began in Palestine, but only a minor portion of its early 
history is confined to this territory. In fact, Palestinians 
exerted comparatively Httle influence upon the movement 
outside Palestine after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 a. d. After 
135 A.D. even the church at Jerusalem was composed exclu- 
sively of Gentiles, and Jewish Christians very soon came to 
be regarded as heretics (e.g., the Ebionites). Consequently 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 271 

it will be sufficient, in a general survey of the history of early 
Christianity, to follow the career of the Palestinian Jewish 
communities through only the first hundred years of their 
existence, at the same time noting more especially the earlier 
events in this period. 

Sources of information. — The first difficulty confronting 
the student is lack of direct sources of information. All 
the early Christian writings now extant were composed in 
Greek, while the mother-tongue of Palestinian Christians was 
Aramaic. But fortunately Paul, writing between the years 
50 and 65 A. D., refers occasionally to his own relations with the 
Palestinians. Also the author of Acts records a few incidents 
in the history previous to the year 45 a.d. and touches the 
Palestinian community again in connection with Paul's last 
visit to Jerusalem. While the writer of Acts was not like Paul 
in being a contemporary of the events described, yet it is not 
improbable that he availed himself of some early sources of 
information both written and oral. Of course he selected, 
supplemented, and explained these sources with a view to 
convincing Theophilus that a particular interpretation of 
Christian history was the vaHd one (Acts 1:1; cf. Luke 1:4). 
Nevertheless some reliable information is probably preserved 
in the early chapters of Acts. From the Gospels also, and 
particularly from the Synoptists, something may be learned 
regarding the early situation in Palestinian communities. 
While the Gospels as they now stand are all products of the 
gentile mission, some of the sources employed in their composi- 
tion undoubtedly arose in a Palestinian environment, and they 
often reflect the special problems of Jewish Christians in the 
first generation. If one were to attempt a complete restora- 
tion of the history of early Palestinian Christianity, all this 
literature would have to be searched for such items as might 
disclose in themselves a Palestinian interest and provenance, 
as distinct both from the situation in which Jesus himself Hved 
and from the situation in gentile fields. 



272 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Connections with Judaism. — One fact stands out very 
clearly in the history of the Palestinian Christians. They 
were all Jews and at first they had no thought of breaking 
with their ancestral faith. Indeed they regarded themselves 
as the true Jews and apparently conceived their chief, if not 
their sole, mission to be that of estabhshing within Judaism a 
reform movement which would lead up to the fulfilment of the 
Jewish messianic hope when Jesus returned upon the clouds. 
They loyally observed Jewish customs and adhered strictly to 
the Law. In fact, many of their number were sure that 
Gentiles could not be saved unless they received circumcision 
as a sign of their right to the Hebrew salvation, which was to 
be God's special gift to the Jews. Other Christians were 
less rigid in their demands, and conceded that Gentiles who 
accepted the Jewish messianic faith as reinterpreted in terms 
of faith in the heavenly Christ might obtain salvation. Yet 
no Jewish Christian was at liberty to neglect any of the reli- 
gious rites peculiar to his own people (cf . Gal. 2 : i-i i) . These 
two attitudes were represented in Palestinian Christianity 
throughout its entire history, although the more conserva- 
tive disposition seems always to have predominated. It is 
very necessary to keep in mind this phase of primitive Chris- 
tianity in order to understand the Palestinians themselves, as 
well as the circumstances under which the notion of gentile 
missions arose. 

The attainment of the new messianic faith. — If the first 
Christians were so emphatically Jewish in their leanings, what 
constituted their distinctiveness? This lay chiefly in their 
beHef that the apocalyptic Jewish Messiah who was soon to 
come upon the clouds was none other than the earthly Jesus 
who had died on the cross. This, it should be noted, consti- 
tuted a distinct transformation of their former hope that 
Jesus while on earth might deliver the nation. Even as late as 
the seventh decade of the first century, when the Gospel of 
Mark was written, it was still remembered that the disciples' 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 273 

hopes previous to Jesus' death centered upon the earthly Jesus, 
and so upon some form of national Davidic dehverance which 
he as their leader might effect. But his death shattered their 
hopes. They concluded that God had forsaken Jesus, and 
they returned to their former occupations thoroughly dis- 
appointed. Then came the visions of the angelic Jesus, which 
led them to beheve that he had escaped from Sheol and 
ascended to heaven. Now they were able to renew their 
messianic hopes, recasting them in apocalyptic form. Since 
Jesus was in heaven was he not really the individual whom 
God would send forth to establish the Kingdom of Heaven 
upon earth? This possibility quickly became a conviction 
with several of Jesus' former associates, and this faith consti- 
tuted the most distinctive mark of the new movement. 

There is ample evidence to show that this new faith was 
the direct result of visions of the risen Jesus experienced by cer- 
tain leading members of the community (e.g., I Cor, 15:5-8), 
but a study of the factors involved in this experience 
carries one over into the realm of primitive religious psy- 
chology. The main historical considerations to be kept in 
mind when investigating the subject are : 

1. Popular thinking in that day moved freely in the 
realm of what moderns would call supernaturalism. Belief in 
the possibihty and reality of apparitions was firmly estabhshed, 
especially among the populace. 

2. There was also a current conviction that in the past 
God had not permitted certain righteous Israelites whom he 
especially favored to take up permanent residence in Sheol, 
but had miraculously transported them to heaven (e.g., 
Moses, Enoch, Elijah). 

3 . In the case of the disciples there was also the memory of 
Jesus' attractive personaHty which had led them while with 
him to believe that he stood in especial favor with God and 
so was worthy to be the Jews' national deliverer from Roman 
oppression. 



2 74 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

4. Furthermore, the apocalyptic messianic imagery was 
ready at hand the moment the disciples began to reflect upon 
the possible status of their beloved master in the world beyond 
the grave. 

5. It is less certain that any specific words of Jesus pre- 
dicting his resurrection and exaltation constituted for the 
disciples a real factor in the situation. Even if he did try to 
prepare them for this behef — as they later thought he must 
have done — they candidly admitted that his attempts proved 
utterly futile. Their hearts were hardened and their eyes 
were holden — until after the events had happened. 

6. The gospel accounts which emphasize the reahty of 
Jesus' risen body reflect a later discussion in the history of 
Christology when the reality of Jesus' physical body even 
prior to his crucifixion was being called in question (Docetism). 
Similarly, the story of the guard at the tomb (Matt. 27 : 27-66; 
28 : 1 1-15) answers the needs of later apologetic. The original 
disciples are hardly likely to have demanded any such props 
for faith. They would be quite convinced merely on the 
strength of the appearances, and would naturally conclude 
that, as in the case of Enoch and Elijah, Jesus' body had been 
miraculously transformed into its heavenly counterpart. 

7. Marvelous awakenings from the dead, especially in the 
case of heroes and divinities worshiped in many contemporary 
pagan cults, were familiar items in the thinking of that ancient 
world and may have constituted an important factor in deter- 
mining the early Christians' use of similar credentials for 
Jesus— even if these current ideas may not have really been 
one of the genetic forces in bringing about the disciples' own 
faith. 

The beginnings of a new community. — Very soon after 
certain friends of Jesus became convinced of his rise from 
Sheol and ascent into heaven, groups began to assemble in 
certain places, and individuals preached this new belief prob- 
ably in the synagogues at the time of pubHc worship. Exact 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 275 

information regarding all the events of these earliest days is 
no longer attainable. In fact, there is uncertainty as to where 
the first visions of Jesus were experienced. According to one 
tradition the disciples saw him first in GaHlee (Matt. 28 : 10, 
16-20; cf. Mark 16:7); another tradition locates all the 
appearances in or near Jerusalem (Luke 24:13-31, 34, 36-51; 
Acts 1:1-9; while the Gospel of John combines the two tra- 
ditions, giving first place to Jerusalem (21:19-23, 26-29; 

2i:4ff.). 

After Christianity had become a formally organized move- 
ment standing over against Judaism, there was a strong 
tendency among Christian interpreters to ignore the obscure 
beginnings in Galilee or elsewhere throughout the country and 
to emphasize the importance of- the new assembly which 
ultimately came together at Jerusalem. This is the situation 
in Acts, whose author apparently knows nothing and cares 
nothing about earHer and smaller assemblies. The apologetic 
interest is especially noticeable in the account of the first 
Christian Pentecost. Since this was the festival at which the 
giving of the Jewish Law, and thus the birth of the nation, 
were celebrated, it was appropriately made the natal day of 
the new rival religion. Likely enough former friends of 
Jesus came up to the feast from various parts of the country, 
and those who had attained the new messianic faith would 
spread the news of Jesus' appearances. Hence it may well be 
that this first Pentecost marked a distinct stage in the growth 
of the movement, but the historian must take account of 
earlier stages in the development, recognizing the pragmatic 
necessities under which the later interpreters labored. 

The break with Judaism. — The early Christian preachers, 
whenever the opportunity offered, tried to convince their 
Jewish kinsmen that the end of the world was near at hand and 
that Jesus had been elevated to messianic dignity in heaven 
whence he would soon return to set up the apocalyptic king- 
dom upon earth. All Jews were urged to accept this teaching 



276 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

and thus guarantee for themselves a place in the new kingdom. 
A few of them accepted, but the vast majority did not. 

Again, the early Christians were enthusiasts. Jesus was 
now in the messianic ofhce in heaven, his return was near, and 
the disciples felt themselves moved by the power of the divine 
Spirit which had always been so important a factor in the his- 
tory of Israel, especially at times of great crises in the life of a 
prophet or leader. Now they were new prophets of the final 
age and so believed themselves moved on occasion by the 
power of the Spirit. The very, foundation of their new faith 
was an ecstatic vision of the heavenly Jesus, and they doubt- 
less frequently experienced exceptional outbursts of new 
enthusiasm. They even ventured to use the powerful name 
of the heaven-exalted Jesus in working miraculous cures, 
notwithstanding the Deuteronomic prohibition against all 
forms of magical practice (Deut. 18:9-14). 

At an early date the new faith was adopted by Hellenists, 
that is, by Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora who had 
returned to Jerusalem to reside either temporarily or perma- 
nently. Among these converts, whose wider experience 
tended to liberalize their views on some matters, the Christian 
cause found new champions. Acts alludes very briefly to this 
Hellenistic community in Jerusalem (chaps. 6 f.), but appar- 
ently it was this leadership that especially incensed Saul 
(Paul) and called forth his activity as a persecutor. 

This whole course of development tended to differentiate 
believers in Jesus' messiahship from other Jews, and the Chris- 
tian community must soon have become a distinct group, 
although its members still regarded themselves as thoroughly 
good Jews. 

Growth of missionary enterprise. — The rise of interest in 
missions is one of the most puzzling problems in the history of 
early Christianity. The earliest Christian preachers talking 
in a Jewish synagogue at the regular Sabbath service were 
propagandists from the start, but their confidence in the immi- 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 277 

nence of the judgment day prevented them from planning 
any extended missionary enterprise even to the Jewish people 
scattered over the Graeco-Roman world. Much less would 
they contemplate a mission to the Gentiles. But the Lord 
delayed his coming and the Jews of Palestine in the main 
rejected the new reformers' teaching. The pressure of this 
situation must soon have produced the notion of a mission 
to Jews of the Diaspora. This process of expansion had 
doubtless begun before Paul appeared upon the scene, and 
probably it went on in many quarters of the Graeco-Roman 
world contemporaneously with Paul's missionary labors. It 
would be a grave mistake to suppose that he and his 
associates were the only persons doing missionary work 
outside Palestine. 

But who first conceived the idea of assembling believers 
from among the Gentiles without first requiring them to 
becom"e proselytes to Judaism ? In the present status of our 
information the question can hardly be answered with cer- 
tainty. The practice of receiving gentile converts was in 
vogue with Barnabas and Paul upon their so-called first 
missionary journey to Asia Minor, and presumably it was 
already a custom among Christians of Antioch who were 
responsible for the mission of Barnabas and Paul. The 
custom evidently was of spontaneous origin, and when later it 
was made a matter of discussion it was approved even by the 
Jerusalem church. 

A more difficult but closely related question pertained to 
table-fellowship between gentile and Jewish converts. Prob- 
ably at first no questions were raised as to the propriety of 
such fellowship among individuals of whatever nationality who 
had believed in a common Lord and received the cleansing 
rite of baptism in his name. But when the question came up 
for theoretical consideration, the Jerusalem Christians were 
unwilling to have Jewish converts violate the laws of cere- 
monial purity by sitting down to table with Gentiles. It was 



278 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

conceded that Gentiles might constitute Christian communi- 
ties by themselves, but there must be no mixed communities. 
This was the ruling against which Paul protested so vigorously 
in the second chapter of Galatians. In the light of these 
events, Peter can scarcely have decided to abandon the law of 
clean and unclean meats at so early a date as Acts, chaps. 10 f., 
would imply. But after further reflection upon his experience 
at Antioch (Gal. 2:11 f.) he may have taken this step, nor 
would this be the first time that the author of Luke-Acts 
had misplaced an incident. Peter continued his missionary 
activities outside Palestine, and it would not be strange if he 
also worked among non-Jews. 

Although early missionaries went out from Palestine, the 
native church still remained very conservative in its attitude 
toward the gentile propaganda. Many Palestinians depre- 
cated it entirely and opposed the work of Paul. Leaders like 
James, however, approved the enterprise, but were offended 
at the thought of free intercourse between Jewish and gentile 
Christians in the same community. These are some of the 
more important items which require study in reconstructing 
this part of the history of early Christianity. 

Life in the Palestinian communities. — Relatively little is 
known of actual conditions within the Palestinian churches. 
We may infer that many of the members were in straightened 
circumstances, else Paul would not have been so diligent in 
gathering his collection for their benefit. They undoubtedly 
cultivated the Jewish type of religious life, attending regularly 
upon the services of the synagogue and the temple. They 
also met together to eat and pray, thereby cultivating their 
own special interests, and among their number were certain 
persons who naturally assumed a position of leadership. The 
''Twelve" and relatives of Jesus were naturally given first 
place. But in this whole region where exact information is 
so scanty the historian must be particularly careful to test 
statements from a later date when the notion of formal 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 279 

organization had come to be a matter of primal important:e, as 
was the case with the author of Acts. 

Later history of Palestinian Christianity. — At a com- 
paratively early date the original leaders of the Christian 
movement began to scatter. Barnabas, who had once been 
prominent in Jerusalem, removed to Antioch where he and 
Paul worked together. James the son of Zebedee was put to 
death in 44 a.d., and Peter barely escaped a similar fate. 
Henceforth Peter resided elsewhere and James the brother of 
Jesus became leader of the Jerusalem church. Except for the 
account of the Jerusalem council, and the story of Paul's 
experiences on the occasion of his final visit to the city, the 
career of the Palestinian Christians is scarcely mentioned in 
any extant literature from the first century. Josephus refers 
to the death of James in 62 a.d., and Eusebius gathered up a 
few scattered notices regarding relatives of Jesus who con- 
tinued to reside in Palestine. These fragmentary items of 
information are indicative of the relatively minor 'position 
which Palestinian Jewish Christians later occupied in the 
main stream of the new religion's development. 

Literature. — See appropriate sections in A. C. McGiffert, A History 
of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, 2d ed. (New York: Scribner, 1899); 
C. Weizsacker, Das apostolische Zeitalter der christlichen Kirche, 3. Aufl. 
(Tiibingen: Mohr, 1901; English translation, The Apostolic Age of the 
Christian Church, 2 vols., 2d ed. [New York: Putnam, 1899]); E. von 
Dobschiitz, Die ur christlichen Gemeinden (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1902 
English translation, Christian Life in the Primitive Church [New York 
Putnam, 1904]) ; V. Bartlet, The Apostolic Age (New York: Scribner, 1899) 
J. H. Ropes, The Apostolic Age in the Light of Higher Criticism (New 
York: Scribner, 1906); E. F. Scott, The Beginnings of the Church (New 
York: Scribner, 191 5). See also brief sections in the books of P. Wernle, 
H. J. Holtzmann, and H. Weinel, cited above, p. 270, and "General 
References," below, p. 324. Special works of minor importance are 

F. J. A. Hort, Judaistic Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1898); 

G. Hoennicke, Das Judenchristentum im ersten und zweiten Jahrhundert 
(Berlin: Towitzsch, 1908); A. Schmidtke, Neue Fragmente und Unter- 
suchungen zu den judenchristlichen Evangelien: Ein Beitrag zur Literatur 
undGeschichtederJudenchristen (Leipzig: Kimichs, igii). . 



28o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

VI. GENTILE CHRISTIANITY IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE 

Characteristics of the period. — From earliest times to 
about 70 A.D. the new religion in gentile lands was hardly 
distinguished from Judaism by outsiders. Its chief advocates, 
such as Paul, Barnabas, Apollos, Peter, Silas, John Mark, were 
all Jews by birth and training. Moreover, the Christian 
preachers used the Jewish Scripture as their own sacred 
literature, they did their work when possible in connection with 
the Jewish synagogues, and they presented the new movement 
as a continuation of ancient Hebrew religion. 

On the other hand, between Jews and Christians them- 
selves bitter enmity had developed. Not only were the 
Christian missionaries unacceptable to the majority of the 
Jews, but the Christian movement had by this time evolved 
an independent organization which drew away from the 
synagogue the support of all individuals who accepted Chris- 
tianity. Hostility was further aggravated by the inroads 
which Christianity made among the circle of "God-fearers." 
These were Gentiles who attended the synagogue services, 
admiring the ethical and spiritual heritage of Judaism, but 
who were backward about identifying themselves completely 
with the Jewish race. To them Christianity must have 
made an especially strong appeal since it offered a means of 
inheriting the spiritual values of Judaism without accepting 
circumcision as a condition of participation in the full blessings 
of salvation. Still another cause of discord in those circles 
where liberal preachers of Paul's type labored was violation 
of the rules of ceremonial purity by Christian Jews who freely 
associated with gentile converts in the same community. 

The gentile churches contained converts from many faiths. 
The Jewish element predominated in some communities, while 
in other places Gentiles were greatly in the majority. The 
latter had been reared in one or more of the contemporary 
pagan religions in which that ancient world abounded; conse- 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 281 

quently a Christian community was likely to be varied in its 
tastes, interests, and heritages. But as yet it was not fully 
conscious of its own real permanence as an institution in the 
world. Even gentile converts accepted the notion that the 
world was to come to an end soon and in the manner described 
by adherents to Jewish eschatological views. 

Such are the general conditions to be kept in mind when 
sketching the history of Christianity in gentile lands down to, 
say, 70 A.D. The new movement is practically ignored by the 
Graeco-Roman world at large; it is confined chiefly to the 
lower strata of society where it encounters severe opposition 
from the Jews; it draws its membership , from the various 
contemporary faiths; it has almost no real consciousness of 
its own permanence as an institution, and it is still guided 
in the main by leaders of the first generation who, roughly 
speaking, are '' apostles" or friends of apostles. 

Sources of information. — Paul's epistles are the chief 
direct sources of information for the period. But they are 
merely occasional documents written at different times be- 
tween the years 50 and 65 a.d., and are not at all designed 
to furnish a comprehensive history of Christianity during its 
early spread to gentile lands. Moreover, in dealing with 
this period the author of Acts has been interested almost 
exclusively in the activities of Paul. In consequence of this 
one-sidedness of the sources a study of Christianity during 
this period becomes almost exclusively a history of the 
work of Paul. But we must not suppose that he and his 
immediate associates were the only gentile missionaries 
carrying on work during these years. For example, there was 
an important church at Rome to which he wrote one of 
his longest letters but with whose establishment he had had 
nothing to do. Furthermore, Barnabas, Peter, Apollos, and 
John Mark, as well as many other unknown persons, were at 
the same time carrying on missionary activities, and a portion 
at least of their labors fell in gentile territory. 



282 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

The conversion of Paul. — Paul's conversion seemed to the 
author of Acts to mark a distinct epoch in the history of the 
new religion, and its epochal significance for Paul's own life 
is attested in his letters (Gal. 1:15 f.; I Cor. 15:8; 9:1; 
II Cor. 4:6). He says that the event marked the halting of 
his vigorous activity as a persecutor and the revelation to him 
of the heavenly Christ. 

The exact content of Paul's experience at this time has 
been much debated. From the historian's standpoint the 
primary problem is to ascertain Paul's own view of the 
matter and the factors in his environment which helped 
him toward the attainment of this particular experience. 
Following are the chief considerations involved in this 
study: 

1. Belief in the reality of apparitions was a common 
possession in Paul's world. 

2. Christian preaching regarding Jesus' elevation to a 
position of angelic dignity in heaven, and his appearance to 
certain of his followers, had been brought forcibly to Paul's 
attention when persecuting the Christians. 

3. Paul's own sensitive temperament is evidenced in the 
vigor of his persecution as well as in his liability to ecstatic 
experience after becoming a Christian. 

4. His life in the Diaspora must also have brought him into 
contact with a widely popular type of thinking in which mys- 
tical experience was regarded as the summum honum in religion. 
Even Jews were influenced by this notion, in spite of the fact 
that it ran counter to the spirit of legalism. In the case 
of Philo, for example, satisfaction for the mystical impulse was 
found in the emotional discovery of hidden meanings in the 
law — a result reached by freely applying the allegorical 
method of interpretation. Paul as a Jew had evidently 
been seeking mystical satisfactions under the law, though his 
search may have been directed more along ascetic lines (cf. 
Rom., chap. 7). 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 283 

5. There were also many contemporary cults which by 
their rites and teachings provided concrete means for realizing 
mystical religious satisfaction through belief in a dying and 
rising hero divinity hailed as Lord of the community. The 
worship of ''Lord" Serapis, ''Lord" Osiris, "Lady" Isis, and 
several other similar divinities, had been flourishing in the 
eastern Mediterranean lands a century and more before Paul's 
conversion (see above, p. 247). These cults supplied to the 
populace the mystical satisfactions which the more educated 
classes sought in the realm of philosophical meditation. 
The way in which familiarity with these cults may have 
helped to prepare Paul for the acceptance of Christianity is 
suggested in his statement that salvation is to be obtained by 
following the simple recipe: "If thou shalt confess with thy 
mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God 
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9). 
The notion of a "Lord" in whose resurrection believers 
exercised faith was doubtless well known to Paul from contact 
with the Hellenistic world, but the pagan cults were too far 
removed from Judaism to permit Paul as a Jew to make any 
practical use of their imagery in his personal religious life. In 
Christianity he first found it possible to bridge the chasm sepa- 
rating Jewish legalism and Hellenistic mysticism. 

6. Doubtless Paul was also familiar with the apocalyptic 
beliefs of contemporary Judaism; hence the idea of the 
heavenly Christ as preached by the Christians would all the 
more readily find lodgment in Paul's mind. 

These are some of the factors which were peculiar to Paul's 
environment prior to his conversion and constituted the 
setting for his experience. Modern psychological analysis 
of religion had no place in Paul's world; hence the question 
so often raised today as to the ultimate ground of the experi- 
ence was never asked by him. He was convinced that he 
had witnessed an actual vision of the living Lord, and in 
this he was but repeating the conviction not only of other 



284 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Christians who had seen visions of Jesus, but also of devotees 
of the , mystery-rehgions in which the initiate sometimes 
believed himself favored by a vision of the god. Paul can 
be understood historically only as we accustom ourselves to 
the ways of thinking peculiar to Paul's own world. 

PauPs career as a missionary. — In so far as the Christian 
career of Paul is recoverable at all, it may easily be recon- 
structed from his letters and from Acts. The special occasion 
and purpose of each of his epistles will also appear as the 
student follows the course of Paul's activity. Still there will 
remain several questions not easy to answer. The extent 
and character of his work for a dozen years previous to his 
first missionary tour described in Acts, chaps. 13 f., are very 
obscure. There is also a question whether the council in 
Jerusalem reported in Acts, chap. 15, is identical with that 
mentioned in Gal. 2:1-10. In view of Gal. 2:iif. it is also 
doubtful whether Paul would have accepted the ''decrees," 
passing them on to the churches so obediently as Acts repre- 
sents (15:22-29; 16:4). Again, it is not known positively 
whether Paul addressed his Galatian letter to Christians in 
Southern Galatia (Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and 
Derbe) or to churches in the north of the province (e.g., at 
Ancyra or Pessinus) . Finally, was Paul released at the end of 
the two years of Roman imprisonment mentioned in Acts ? If 
so, did he ever carry out his intention of going to Spain (Rom. 
15:24, 28), and what were the circumstances which brought 
about his death ? These are some of the problems still open to 
discussion in a study of the life of Paul ; nevertheless his place 
in the history of early Christianity is better known than that 
of any of his contemporaries. 

Missionary methods of Paul. — ^The methods employed by 
him in his missionary work are particularly interesting. When, 
he and Barnabas went on their first tour, the church at Antioch 
in Syria may have financed the enterprise (Acts 13 : 2 f .) ; but 
later Paul worked strictly on his own account, and so his 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 285 

activity was restricted mainly to industrial and commercial 
centers where he and his companions could more easily earn 
their livelihood as they preached. When troubles arose in 
distant communities which had been established by himself, 
or by some other Christian in his travels, Paul would write a 
letter of instruction and exhortation, sending it by some 
friend who might be passing that way. In cases of serious 
trouble he endeavored to make a personal visit to the church, 
but this was not always possible, and letter-writing was used 
as a substitute. 

The manner of propaganda was simple. When possible, 
Paul embraced the opportunity which ^the Jewish synagogue 
service offered for preaching, following the reading of the 
Scripture. But this privilege usually was short-lived, since 
Paul's message proved unacceptable to the Jewish authorities. 
Probably much effective missionary work was done through 
personal conversation with men and women engaged in the 
sajne activities in the ordinary walks of life. Street preach- 
ing was another means which was doubtless frequently 
employed. One of the most characteristic phenomena of 
that age was the traveling moral philosopher, the Cynic- 
Stoic preacher, who went about exhorting men to live the 
nobler life which these practical philosophers held up as the 
ideal. The form of their discourse, known as the diatribe, is 
reproduced in many portions of Paul's letters. As he dic- 
tated these letters to an amanuensis he easily fell into the 
style which he, like his fellow Stoic preachers, employed in 
public discourse. The sophist was also a familiar figure in 
that world. He was more of a public entertainer than the 
Cynic-Stoic preacher, and followed the profession for its 
lucrative possibilities. He often had a building or hall where 
he instructed pupils in the art of oratory and where he gave 
public exhibitions of his own oratorical skill. Paul speaks 
rather disparagingly of the sophist's art (I Cor. 1:20), but it 
was probably from one of these pedagogues in Ephesus that 



286 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Paul rented a room for a certain time each day when he 
pubHcly expounded the new rehgion in a manner not wholly 
different from the method used by the sophist for propagating 
his interests (Acts 19:9). 

Life in the Pauline communities. — How are we to think of 
the new assemblies so often referred to as "churches"? It 
must not be supposed that Christians at this time owned 
buildings or that they supported elaborate organizations. 
They assembled at the home of some member of the group or 
at some hall temporarily procured for the purpose when 
they were able to pay the rental. The time of meeting was 
either early in the morning before going to work or at night 
after the labors of the day were over. A special service was 
held on the first day of the week (Sunday), but as yet there 
was no such thing as a Sunday holiday. There were two kinds 
of meeting, one private and the other public. The religious 
meal was eaten at the former, while Scripture reading, singing, 
and preaching took place in the latter (cf. I Cor. 14:26-33). 
New members were admitted into full fellowship in the com- 
munity through the rite of baptism. 

There were no stated officials, but certain individuals 
stood out more prominently than others because of their 
ability to discharge particular functions. At first these 
activities were wholly spontaneous and were credited to the 
guidance of the Spirit. Prophesying, teaching, working 
miracles, healing the sick, helping the needy, giving counsel, 
speaking with tongues, and interpretation of tongues were 
all effected through the agency of the Spirit (I Cor. 12 : 28-30). 
Nevertheless conditions within this new society were not 
always ideal. Its membership was varied, some being slaves 
while others were fairly prosperous individuals. Different 
tastes and opinions were represented, and occasionally there 
were factions and even cases of moral laxity (e.g., I Cor., 
chaps. 1-6). Sometimes families were divided, one member 
having adopted Christianity while the others remained ad- 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 287 

herents of some pagan cult. And to add to the difficulty, 
some of the communities were visited by Judaizers who 
asserted that the Gentiles could not be saved unless they 
accepted circumcision. 

The Christianity of Paul. — What, in its main outlines, 
was the type of Christianity represented by Paul ? 

1. He strongly advocated a mystical, as opposed to a 
legalistic, interpretation of religion. But he was a practical 
rather than a philosophical mystic, that is, he attained to 
union with Deity, not by means of meditation and intellectual 
emotion, but through the medium of worship. To be ''in 
Christ," or to be ''spiritual" — to use his characteristic modes 
of expression — was a state which could be attained only in 
connection with the new worshiping community. Hence the 
great significance of its unique rites such as baptism and the 
Lord's Supper. 

2. The Christianity of Paul is also dominated by a vivid 
eschatological hope phrased in the apocalyptic imagery of 
Jewish messianism. If PauFs mysticism shows a distinct 
Hellenistic coloring, his eschatology is emphatically Jewish in 
type. The heavenly Christ with whom he enjoyed a perma- 
nent mystical union, as realistic as that of the devotee in any 
of the mystery-cults, was the Jewish Messiah soon to come 
on the clouds in glory, and one of the chief incentives for 
missionary enterprise was the thought of this impending 
event. 

3. The ethical note in Paul's exposition of Christianity is 
also very prominent. He not only conserved those fine 
ethical heritages which came to him from Judaism and from 
the teaching of Jesus, but occasionally he also availed himself 
of Stoic ideals widely current in his day. 

Thus Paul so appreciated the needs of his environment, 
and was himself so thoroughly an integral part of his world, 
that he was able to deliver a religious message which made 
a strong appeal to the men of his time. He himself had 



288 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

encompassed so wide a range of experience that he was espe- 
cially suited to the task of ministering to the needs of that 
syncretistic age. He di4 not, to be sure, reach the higher 
philosophical circles of the time, but this failure was in a 
measure fortunate. The mission of Christianity still lay 
for some years with the masses, and in fact, as we shall later 
observe, it ultimately triumphed as an organized cult rather 
than as a philosophy of religion. 

Literature. — For the general period see the works of McGiffert, 
Weizsacker, von Dobschiitz, Bartlet, Ropes, Wernle, Holtzmann, and 
Weinel, cited above, p. 279; see also "General References" on p. 324. 

Representative books on Paul are K. Lake, The Earlier Epistles of 
St. Paul: Their Motive and Origin (London: Rivingtons, 191 1); H. 
Weinel, Paulus der Mensch und sein Werk (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1904; Eng- 
lish translation, St. Paul the Man and His Work [New York: Putnam, 
1906]); C. Clemen, Paulus sein^Leben und Wirken, 2 Bde. (Giessen: 
Topelmann, 1904); A. Deissmann, Paulus: Eine kultur- und religions- 
geschichlichte Skizze (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 1 ; English translation, St. Paul, 
a Study in Social and Religious History [New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 
1912]); P. Gardner, The Religious Experience of St. Paul (New York: 
Putnam, 1911); W. Wrede, Paulus (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1904; English 
translation, Paul [Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1908]); 
A. Schweitzer, Geschichte der paulinischen Forschung von der Reformation 
bis aufdie Gegenwart (Tiibingen: Mohr, 191 1 ; English translation, Paul 
and His Interpreters: A Critical History [London: Black, 191 2]). 

Some important special discussions are H. Gunkel, Die Wirkungen des 
heiligen Geistes nach der popular en Anschauung der apostolischen Zeit und 
der Lehre des Apostels Paulus, 3. Aufl. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und 
Ruprecht, 1909); M. Dibelius, Die Geisterwelt im Glauben des Paulus 
(Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1909); H. A. A. Kennedy, 
St. Paul and the Mystery-Religions (New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 
1913) ; J. Weiss, Beitrdge zur paulinischen Rhetorik (Gottingen: Vanden- 
hoeck und Ruprecht, 1897); R. Bultmann, Der Stil der paulinischen 
Predigt und die kynisch-stoische Diatribe (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und 
Ruprecht, 1910) ; H. Bohlig, Die Geisteskultur von Tarsos im augusteischen 
Zeitalter mit Beriicksichtigung der paulinischen Schriften (Gottingen: 
Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1913); K. Benz, Die Ethik des Apos- 
tels Paulus (Freiburg: Mohr, 19 12); A. Jiilicher, Paulus und Jesus 
(Tiibingen: Mohr, 1907); W. Heitmliller, Taufe und Abendmahl bei 
Paulus (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1903). 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 289 

VII. GENTILE CHRISTIANITY IN POST-APOSTOLIC TIMES 

General characteristics. — This period extends from about 
70 to 140 A.D. As compared with the previous period in the 
history of gentile Christianity, it shows several distinctive 
characteristics. By the year 70 the original apostolic leaders 
had quite generally given place to men of the second genera- 
tion, and indifference on the part of the Roman authorities had 
changed into a growing hostility which occasionally broke out 
in more or less vigorous persecutions. Within the com- 
munities themselves the spontaneous ecstatic life of former 
days was less in evidence, and a more formal leadership and 
organization came to be the rule. But still believers con- 
tinued to look longingly toward a future world-catastrophe 
for the full realization of Christianity's mission. While 
Jewish apocalyptic expectations were not always pictured 
so vividly as they were in Paul's thinking, still the advocates of 
the new religion in this period never came to regard their 
chief mission as that of establishing Christianity in a present 
enduring world-order. The new movement was gaining 
rapidly in the strength by which it was later able to take 
possession of the Graeco-Roman world, but as yet it was quite 
unconscious of its power and made almost no deliberate 
attempts either to defend itself against persecution or to 
appropriate for itself the political, economic, religious, and 
intellectual forces of the day. 

Sources of information. — For the first time in the history 
of early Christianity the direct sources of information now 
become fairly numerous. They are, in the first place, several 
extant letters written, as in the case of Paul's epistles, to meet 
some immediate demand. Hence they reflect very clearly 
certain local situations. Important examples of this class 
of literature are the epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corin- 
thians, the seven letters of Ignatius written while on his way 
to Rome to be martyred, Polycarp's letter to the Philippians, 
and still other letters of doubtful authorship but of similarly 



290 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

valuable content, such as I and II Peter, I-III John, Jude, 
and the letters of Revelation to the seven churches of Asia. 
Other documents commonly classed as letters are less specific 
in character but are valuable for the light they shed on general 
conditions. In some cases they were designed as circular 
letters, while in other instances they may originally have been 
Christian homilies or sermons. Among these documents 
I and II Timothy and Titus were apparently intended as 
handbooks for the use of young pastors, while Hebrews, 
James, and Barnabas have more of the character of homilies. 

Another type of literature characteristic of this age is 
the so-called ''gospel." This form of writing was designed for 
the instruction and edification of individuals or of communi- 
ties, and as tastes and needs varied in different parts of the 
widening mission field several different written gospels took 
shape. Those called by the names of Mark, Matthew, Luke, 
and. John have been preserved in the New Testament, while 
others once highly prized in certain circles are now known only 
in fragments. Such are the Gospel according to the Hebrews 
and the Gospel of Peter. The Gospels, as well as the Book of 
Acts, all purport to deal with the history of the earlier age, 
yet their point of view and method of treatment often dis- 
close something of the specific conditions amid which the 
authors themselves lived. In addition to these indirect 
sources, other writings similarly designed for purposes of 
instruction deal directly with problems of post-apostolic times. 
The Didache belongs here, and also II Clement and Diognetus 
— if the two last-named documents are not really of later 
date. Lastly, the Apocalypse of John (Revelation), a frag- 
ment of the Apocalypse of Peter, and perhaps also the older 
elements of the Shepherd of Hermas belong in this period. 

Evidences of growth. — The course of Christianity's spread 
during these years cannot be traced in detail. There is no 
ancient document which reconstructs the career of a single 
missionary in the way that the author of Acts follows Paul's 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 291 

activity. Nor did any Christian leader of post-apostolic 
times stand out so pre-eminently as did Paul in his generation. 
But significant leaders were not lacking, as the names of 
Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp show. 

Although comparatively little is known of individual 
leaders, the student of the period will be struck by some 
notable evidences of the new religion's expansion. About the 
year 112 a.d. Pliny the Younger wrote to the Emperor Trajan 
describing the situation in the province of Bithynia-Pontus 
over which Pliny had recently been appointed governor. He 
said that the new religion had spread not only among the 
cities, but even in the villages and country districts, until the 
worship of the old gods had been seriously impaired. There 
was no longer any demand for sacrificial victims or for the 
fodder which formerly had been regularly purchased by their 
keepers. This economic decline, due to the wide spread of 
Christianity, caused Pliny real alarm. 

There is also evidence of Christianity's increased impor- 
tance in territory where it had already been in existence 
during apostolic times. This is particularly true of the 
Province of Asia. Ephesus is still the chief seat of the new 
religion, but important Christian communities are now found 
in various cities (e.g., Smyrna, Pergamum, Philadelphia, 
Sardis, Tralles, Hierapolis, Laodicea, Colossae, Magnesia, 
Thyatira) . In Syria and Palestine, in Macedonia, in Greece, 
in Italy, and in Egypt there are also signs of growth. Even 
North Africa, Gaul, and Spain were probably reached by 
Christian preachers during this period. 

Relation to Judaism. — The breach between Christians and 
Jews of the Diaspora was already wide at the end of the 
Apostolic Age, and hostility between the two religions con- 
tinued to increase during the subsequent years. The fall of 
Jerusalem in 70 a.d. was regarded by the ^ Christians as a 
direct punishment of the Jews for their rejection of the Chris- 
tian message. Paul's expectation that his own countrymen 



292 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

would accept the Gospel when they saw the Gentiles coming 
into the kingdom (e.g., Rom. ii 125 ff.) was abandoned, and a 
behef that the Jewish people were to be utterly rejected 
appears clearly in such writings as Matthew, Luke-Acts, 
and John. Christians now claimed that they, as gentile 
converts to the new faith, were the true people of God with 
exclusive rights to the Old Testament revelation and all its 
promises. The old covenant had been merely anticipatory, 
hence it was now the proper possession of the new religion in 
which it had come to fulfilment. Christians accordingly used 
the ancient Scripture to substantiate their new teaching, 
allegorizing or ignoring those features which could not be 
appropriated directly. Various interpreters tried their skill 
at this task and the varying results are observable in docu- 
ments like I Clement, Hebrews, and Barnabas. 

The Jews, as would be expected, resented the Christians' 
mode of procedure. Those Jews who had adopted Chris- 
tianity were regarded as apostates, and the use of the Old 
Testament in gentile Christian communities was viewed as a 
defilement of the Scripture. Hostility was all the more 
bitter because in many places Jewish and Christian com- 
munities existed side by side as competitors in appealing for a 
following among the heathen. Under these circumstances 
bitter enmity was inevitable, and it is not surprising that the 
Jews embraced every opportunity to persuade the authorities 
that Christianity was politically dangerous. It is this situa- 
tion which causes the author of Revelation to exclaim that the 
Jews of Asia are veritably a synagogue of Satan (2:9; 3:9). 
It is noticeable also that the writers of Luke-Acts and John 
take pains to show that the Roman authorities of earlier 
days found Christianity politically harmless in spite of Jewish 
allegations to the contrary. These are indications of the real 
difhculties under which Christians were laboring as a result of 
the new religion's continued Jewish connections in post- 
apostolic times. 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 293 

Relation to the Roman state. — The new movement con- 
fronted a still graver difficulty when Roman officials began to 
realize that it no longer stood within Judaism. The Jewish 
religion enjoyed a large measure of tolerance within the Roman 
Empire, and Christianity at first shared in this privilege. But 
in the post-apostolic age its independence came to be more and 
more appreciated by the state authorities, who occasionally 
sought to suppress the new "superstition," as they called it. 
The exact charge upon which Christians were condemned is 
not always clear, but the causes of official interference are 
easily discovered. In the first place Rome was on principle 
intolerant of new cults, at whose secret meetings disturbers 
might hatch up political sedition. Sometimes the Jews took 
advantage of this situation and accused Christians before 
the suspicious Roman magistrates. Moreover, pagans also 
were often ill-disposed toward these new religionists who 
held aloof from the common life of the community, and so 
won for themselves the epithet of "haters of the human race." 
Christianity also disturbed economic conditions, as Pliny's 
letter attests. And, finally, when Christians were haled 
before the magistrates they would neither acknowledge 
Caesar's lordship nor offer incense before his image, thus 
virtually refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the 
state. 

The specific occasions when Christians suffered persecu- 
tion during this period are not altogether clear. In the 
closing years of apostolic times (64 a.d.) Nero had infficted 
tortures on Christians at Rome, but probably his action did 
not extend beyond the city. There were persecutions again 
under Domitian (81-96 a.d.) which may have reached Asia 
and given occasion for the writing of Revelation and I Peter. 
Similar events recurred under Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117- 
38), and Antoninus Pius (138-61). But probably the extent 
and severity of these early persecutions have been somewhat 
exaggerated in later tradition. 



294 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Organization and worship. — In post-apostolic times the 
earher spontaneous hfe as seen in the PauHne communities was 
supplanted by a somewhat more orderly and formal practice. 
Yet the primitive spontaneity was not entirely lost. There 
were still the public and the private meetings, though the 
latter were tending to disappear. Small groups met at private 
homes for prayer, reading and interpretation of Scripture, and 
exhortation. But greater importance attached to the general 
meetings, especially to those held on Sunday. THe members 
came together at the home of some Christian who could 
furnish the necessary room, or else they assembled in some 
place rented for the purpose. There was one gathering 
early in the morning where the time was taken up with 
Scripture reading, prayer, and preaching. There was another 
assembly in the evening after the day's work was over when 
the love feast (Agape) was eaten and the Eucharist was cele- 
brated. But the Agape gradually disappeared from formal 
worship, becoming a private social function, while the Euchar- 
ist was taken over into the other service where its ritualistic 
character was still further emphasized. For example, 
Did. 10:3 calls it ''spiritual food and drink and eternal life"; 
in John 6:51-59 it is said that they alone have eternal life 
who eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man; and 
for Ignatius the Eucharist is the very ''medicine of immor- 
tality," the "bread of God" (Eph. 20:2; Rom, 7:3; see 
also Justin Apol. i. 66. 2). 

The rite of baptism is also further formalized in this period. 
Apparently it may still be administered by any Christian, as 
in Paul's day (I Cor. 1:14-17), but several specific prescrip- 
tions for its observance are laid down (e.g.. Did., chap. 7). 
The candidates undergo a preliminary training ending in 
a season of fasting immediately preceding the administra- 
tion of the rite marking the individual's entrance into 
full membership in the church. Baptism freed him from 
the dominion of evil demons and supplied him with the 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 295 

Holy Spirit, all of which meant a new birth and a divine 
enlightenment. 

In post-apostolic times the new society also became more 
formally officered than it had been in the preceding genera- 
tion. This phase in the historical development is often 
obscure, but its main outlines are recoverable. It is very clear 
that the authority of the persons who directed the affairs of 
the Pauline community at Corinth rested in their functional 
capacity rather than in official' appointment. Yet Paul 
himself recognized the special authority of the leaders at 
Jerusalem, although unwilling to admit that their authority 
was superior to his own. The author of Acts, however, has 
gone so far in his desire for formal official leadership as to make 
the Jerusalem apostles virtually a college of overseers in- 
trusted with the task of supervising affairs not only in the 
local community, but also in all the adjacent missionary fields. 
This is the general direction taken by the developing ecclesi- 
astical organization of the post-apostolic age. As yet there is 
no central authority for all Christendom, but local leadership 
tends to center in a monarchical bishop with presbyters and 
deacons as his subordinates. The duties of various officials 
become more exactly defined, and the activities of the pneu- 
matic traveling prophet are less highly esteemed. 

The content of Christian teaching. — The teaching heard 
within the Christian communities of post-apostolic times was 
still very largely Jewish in content. As yet the only recog- 
nized canonical books were those of the Old Testament, 
although many distinctly Christian writings were in circula- 
tion and were read for edification. The memory of the blessed 
apostles was everywhere cherished, but their writings had 
not yet been made canonical. Yet a tendency in this direc- 
tion had begun to show itself, especially in the new conception 
of Christianity as a specific body of teaching authoritatively 
defined and once for all delivered unto the saints (e.g., II Tim. 
1:14; Jude, vs. 31). 



296 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

This growing deposit of faith was composed of many differ- 
ent elements. As in earlier times, Jewish ideas about God, 
angels, Satan, and demons were prominent. The end of the 
world and the coming of the apocalyptic Messiah were still 
preached (e.g., Mark 9:1; I Clem. 23:3-5; Ignatius Eph. 
II :i; Barn. 4:3, 9), and different explanations were offered 
to account for the delay in the Messiah's coming (e.g., Mark 
13:10; II Peter 3:4 ff.). In the meantime Christians called 
themselves the true people of God on earth, and the whole 
course of the world's history was believed to head up in the 
church. The significance of Jesus' work occupied the center 
of distinctively Christian teaching, but christological specula- 
tion moved along several new lines. For example, the Gospel 
of Mark pictured Jesus' uniqueness in terms of spiritual 
endowment at baptism; the authors of Matthew and Luke 
added the notion of miraculous birth; in John the idea of the 
incarnate Logos was adopted to explain Jesus' person. Igna- 
tius also insisted emphatically upon the idea of a literal 
incarnation of Deity in Jesus, while other thinkers like 
Clement of Rome and the authors of Hebrews, Barnabas, and 
the Gospel according to the Hebrews made their respective 
contributions to Christology. ■ While Jesus was elevated to a 
position approaching more nearly that of the heavenly Christ 
revered in the worshiping community, Christianity cannot 
be said to have evolved as yet any one self-consistent form of 
christological speculation. 

In several quarters the Christian teaching of this period 
is framed to offset the work of "false teachers." These 
disturbers were not unknown in apostolic times (e.g., the 
Judaizers), but later they became more prevalent and more 
dangerous. The author of Revelation warns his readers 
against these individuals in Ephesus, in Pergamum, and in 
Thyatira. The letters of John and Jude, and by implication 
also the Gospels of Luke and John, show a similar anxiety for 
the preservation of the true faith as understood by the 



THE STUDY OF KARLY CHRISTIANITY 297 

orthodox. The Pastoral Epistles several times caution 
readers against being caught in the snare of vain disputations, 
and both Ignatius and Poly carp denounce the heretics. 
Numerous incidental - references in other documents show 
how general these disturbances already had become (e.g., 
Matt. 7: 15-23; 24:iif.; Acts8:2of.; 2o:29f.; Heb. 13:9; 
I Pet. 2:16; James 3:13 ff.; Did., chap. 11; I Clem., chaps. 
23 ff.; Barn., chap 4). These errors are occasional, varied, 
and for the most part still within the church. Their general 
tendency, however, is in the direction of Gnosticism, which 
later, as we shall see, developed into an independent Chris- 
tian movement. 

Attention must be called to one other phase of Christian 
teaching characteristic of this period. Although the advocates 
of Christianity were quite unconscious of the process, the new 
movement was gradually becoming an integral part of the 
religious life of the Graeco-Roman world. A few indications 
of this fact may be observed in passing. While Christians 
believed that they were perpetuating Hebrew monotheism 
in its purity, in the prayers, hymns, confessions, and other 
ritualistic acts of the worshiping community, the heavenly 
Christ was treated as himself a deity, just as was done in the 
case of the special divinities worshiped in the contemporary 
Hellenistic cults. The titles "Lord" and ''Savior," current 
in the cult of the emperor and in the mystery-religions, were 
freely applied to the risen Jesus. His ''Name" had the same 
magical significance as that of other divinities, and in fact the 
new movement sometimes was called simply the religion of the 
"Name." While Ignatius was the first to call Jesus God 
outright, the place which Jesus occupied in the reverence of 
the community from the very beginning of post-apostolic times 
was virtually that of Deity. Nor was Christian thinking any 
longer content as Paul had been to locate Jesus' career as 
Deity in heaven only; he was also God while on earth. The 
earlier apostolic problem of the man- God now became the 



298 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

problem of the God-man. In their efforts to solve this prob- 
lem the post-apostolic Christians freely availed themselves of 
contemporary Hellenistic thinking, in which the God-man was 
a familiar figure. 

Various subsidiary phases of Christian thinking during 
this period also show the influence of the Graeco-Roman 
environment. Jewish views regarding the fate of the soul 
after death were not entirely abandoned, but they were to a 
considerable extent fused with a more distinctly Greek 
imagery. Less importance was now attached to the resusci- 
tation of the body and the notion of final judgment, and more 
stress was placed upon the soul's entrance into final blessed- 
ness immediately after death (e.g., Luke 16:22; 23:43; John 
14 : 2 f .) . The complementary idea of a place of punishment to 
which the wicked went immediately upon leaving the earth was 
also a popular Hellenistic notion (cf. Luke 16:23, ^^nd espe- 
cially the Apocalypse of Peter) . The Conception of religion as 
the attainment of ''Knowledge" and "Life" — ideas occurring 
in the Didache, John, I Clement, and Ignatius — have striking 
parallels in contemporary Hellenicism. The peculiarly Stoic 
notion of divine immanence also finds expression in such 
Christian statements as "in him we live and move and have 
our being" (Acts 17:28). 

The Christian life. — In post-apostolic times Christian 
living also had its characteristic features. The personnel of 
the communities was greatly diversified. Most of the mem- 
bership was still composed of adult converts — some from 
Judaism, but a rapidly increasing majority from paganism. 
Various nationalities were represented, as well as many differ- 
ent tastes and interests. The new movement was located .. 
mainly in the cities, although in some places it had penetrated 
into the country districts. The majority of its adherents 
still belonged to the lower classes, but the number of 
prosperous and more influential converts was gradually 
increasing. 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 299 

Christians were exhorted by their teachers to hold them- 
selves scrupulously aloof from the contaminating influences 
of heathen society. Not only heathen worship, but pagan 
life in general, was adjudged a work of Satan and his evil 
demons. Over against this Satanic society stood the assembly 
of the saints on earth. To be sure, many Christians proved 
themselves to be mere babes in sainthood, as the leaders of the 
new religion often sadly admitted. But the ideal was high, 
and much attention was given to the means by which it 
might be attained. Of course the rites of the cult were 
indispensable, but the daily life of the individual needed 
constant attention if the highest attainments in piety were to 
be reached. 

Among these special means of grace the Spirit still held an 
important place. Spiritual manifestations were more care- 
fully controlled than in Paul's day, and the Spirit was no longer 
so completely regulative for all Christian activities. Yet it 
was thought to be the common possession of all believers 
(e.g., Heb. 6:4; Barn. 1:2; I Clem. 2:2; I John 2:20). It 
expressed itself in various ways, but especial emphasis now 
fell upon the activity of the Spirit in communicating to men 
the Old Testament revelation. The prophetic Spirit speak- 
ing through the Scriptures now took precedence over those 
more spontaneous forms of charismatic activity characteristic 
of apostolic times. 

Some new instruments for the attainment of special grades 
of piety were discovered, or newly applied, in post-apostolic 
times. One very serious question concerned the treatment 
of members who sinned after becoming Christians. Certain 
heinous sins seem generally to have been regarded as unpardon- 
able (Mark 3 : 29 f. ; Heb. 6:4 ff.; Did. 11:7; I John 5: 16 f.), 
but a large opportunity for repentance was usually allowed 
(Rev. 2 : 2 1 f . ; John 7 : 53 — 8 : 1 1) . Much stress was placed 
upon the act of confession, especially public confession, as a 
condition of forgiveness. Those of stronger moral character 



300 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

sought to transcend the ordinary requirements of righteous- 
ness and win special merit through the performance of 
^'good works" — almsgiving, fasting, special prayer, and 
asceticism. The greatest rewards, however, could be attained 
only through martyrdom. 

Thus two main grades of piety came to be generally recog- 
nized. The lower was that of the ordinary man who, from lack 
of opportunity or through native inability, was unable to attain 
to the higher level. On the other hand, a chosen few, diligent 
in almsgiving, prayer, fasting, ascetic observances, and wit- 
nessing, attained to a position of especial reverence in the 
community and were believed to inherit the richest rewards of 
heaven. 

Literature. — The best book on this specific period is R. Knopf, Das 
nachapostolische Zeitalter (Tubingen: Mohr, 1905). See also books on 
the Apostolic Age (above, p. 279), which sometimes treat the period only 
in so far as the New Testament writings are connected with the history. 
See also "General References" (below, p. 324). 

VIII. THE WORK OF THE EARLY APOLOGISTS 

New tendencies. — When a student has followed with some 
care the course of Christianity's development in post-apostolic 
times, he has become familiar with the main features char- 
acterizing the new religion during the next two generations. 
The age of the apologists did not produce any very radically 
new features in Christianity. Yet, although the leading 
apologists themselves stood definitely within the Christian 
communities as already established, they do represent certain 
new tendencies in the growth of the new religion. In general, 
they aim to show that Christianity is really deserving of a 
recognized place in the world. The patient unaggressive 
attitude of earlier times is gradually superseded by a growing 
disposition toward self-defense and aggression. The apologists 
address themselves to the emperors; they contend for the 
superiority of Christianity over the culture and religion of 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 301 

the contemporary world; they vigorously attack Jewish 
opponents, and occasionally they also refute the heretics 
who have now become independent of the church. 

The individual apologists. — ^Apart from writings Kke 
Luke-Acts and John, which are essentially apologetic in spirit 
if not in form, the earliest apologist known is Quadratus. But 
only a very small fragment of his work, which was addressed 
to Hadrian about 124 a.d., is now extant. About the year 
150 Aristides, a Christian philosopher of Athens, addressed 
to Antoninus Pius a defense of Christianity, the main con- 
tention being that true knowledge of God is found only in the 
new religion. While the Jews profess to believe in one god 
they are accused of really worshiping angels; the gods of the 
Greeks are merely gross anthropomorphic creatures, and the 
deities of the barbarians are simply the forces of nature. 
Only by the fourth division of humanity, the Christians, is 
God truly known and worshiped. 

Justin was a Hellenistic philosopher converted to Chris- 
tianity in Asia about 130 a.d., but his chief work was done 
at Rome, where he conducted a Christian school until over- 
taken by a martyr's death about the year 165. Among his 
genuine extant writings are a longer and a shorter apology in 
which he contends for the innocence of Christians and afhrms 
that Christianity is worthy of recognition as the true rehgion 
and the true philosophy. Similarly, in another work, the Dia- 
logue with Try p ho, Christianity's superiority over Judaism is 
affirmed on the ground that Christians alone are the true Israel. 

Tatian, a pupil of Justin, also addressed a defense of 
Christianity to the Greeks. He describes Greek culture as a 
body of error, while Christianity is the true wisdom running 
back through all antiquity. Moses is said to have antedated 
Homer by four hundred years, and since the Old Testament is 
claimed as the pecuhar property of Christianity, the new 
rehgion possesses both the prestige of antiquity and the deposit 
of real revelation. 



302 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Several fragments are preserved from Melito of Sardis, who 
addressed an apology to Marcus Aurelius. To the same 
emperor Athenagoras, possibly of Athens, directed an appeal 
on behalf of the Christians about 177 a.d. The argument 
proceeded along usual lines, defending Christians against 
calumnies and dwelling upon the nobihty of the Christian con- 
ception of God. In still another work Athenagoras attempted 
to furnish a philosophical basis for belief in the resurrection. 

Theophilus, bishop of Antioch in Syria, some time after 
the death of Marcus Aurelius (180 a.d.) also composed three 
apologetic books addressed to a heathen called Autolycus. 
About the same date a Roman Christian, Minucius Felix, 
wrote a defensive treatise modeled after Cicero's De natura 
deorum. 

All these early apologists were interested in demanding 
tolerance from the state and in defending the new religion's 
superiority over pagan religions and philosophies. To a less 
extent they refuted Jewish critics, and incidentally they now 
and then condemned heretics. Thus representative leaders 
in different parts of Christendom were beginning to widen 
their range of vision and claim for the new religion a recog- 
nized place in that ancient world. 

The specific problem of the apologists. — All the apologists 
were engaged in the general task of proving to the heathen 
the absolute rationality and universahty of the Christian 
rehgion, the true philosophy. But their more specific prob- 
lem was a christological one. During the Apostolic Age, and 
especially in post-apostolic times, the process of pushing back 
upon the earthly Jesus the glory of the heavenly Christ was 
gradually completed. No distinction was any longer made 
between the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith to whom 
Christians directed their prayers and confessions, in whose 
name they were baptized, of whose immortal substance they 
partook in the Eucharist, and whose divine glory they cele- 
brated in their hymns. The fulness of Deity thus popularly 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 303 

ascribed to the heavenly Christ was freely posited of the man 
Jesus. He was now definitely called a Second God {devrepos 
deos). The apologists shared in full this item of popular 
faith, and the necessity of defending it against the charge of 
polytheism gave them their special problem. Polytheism 
had long ago been discarded, not only by Jews, but by the 
better educated classes of the Graeco-Roman world, and 
strong monotheistic tendencies had appeared within those 
circles where either Platonic idealism or Stoic pantheism 
exerted a dominating influence. Christians were now 
accused of being polytheists both by Jewish and by pagan 
critics. Jewish criticism was taken less seriously, since hope 
of winning any large Jewish following had been abandoned. 
But the desirabihty of meeting gentile objections was felt 
more keenly, and the apologists set themselves to the specific 
task of proving that Christians were really monotheists in spite 
of the fact that they worshiped Jesus as God. 

The Logos Christology. — The chief instrument employed 
by the apologists in defense of Christian monotheism was the 
notion of the Logos. This word, which was already doing 
service in various connections among their pagan contempo- 
raries, was appropriated by the apologists without any 
thoroughgoing attempt to define its exact meaning. Their 
primary interest was in Christianity as a new cult, and 
philosophical terminology was employed only as an expedient 
to serve the apologetic needs of the rehgionist. In other words, 
we have here to do with the religionist turned philosopher and 
not with the philosopher interpreting religion in terms of a 
carefully devised system of philosophical speculation. 

This opportunist character of the apologists' work is 
apparent in their Christology. While they called Jesus God, 
they endeavored to unite him with the supreme Deity by 
means of the Logos as a divine emanation or hypostasis. In 
this way they hoped not only to meet the demands of philo- 
sophical monotheism but to estabHsh the rationality and 



304 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

universaKty of Christianity. Since the Logos was commonly 
supposed to be the source of all intelKgence within the universe 
everywhere and at all times, all the enhghtenment of the past 
could be called essentially Christian in content and all present 
and future wisdom must be sought within Christian circles 
where the Logos had finally been perfectly revealed. 

The philosophical versus the mythical motive. — ^Happy 
as this Christian apologetic may on first sight seem, it con- 
tained features which made it impossible of acceptance for 
the real philosopher of that day. It was of the nature of all 
genuine Hellenistic Logos-doctrine that man by creation had 
the Logos-enlightenment in virtue of which he could by 
searching find out God. This was emphatically denied by the 
apologists, whose ultimate criterion of religious knowledge was 
not reason at all, but supernatural, special revelation. The- 
oretically they allowed that the Logos had been present in the 
gentile world before the coming of Christ, yet they affirmed 
that this manifestation was of a very inferior sort and that 
the Greek philosophers had in the main produced only a 
mass of errors. Nor could a contemporary philosopher attain 
true wisdom outside the Christian community. Ultimately 
true philosophy, i.e., true religion, was a divine donation 
rather than a human attainment, and could be acquired only 
through acquaintance with revelation contained in the Old 
Testament and finally brought to completion in the Logos 
Christ. 

When the apologists took this stand they really sided, not 
with the philosophers, but with the mythologists of their day. 
The Christian Logos was not a normal quantum of divine 
rational energy possessed in common by mankind, but a 
heroic figure descended to earth under one special set of cir- 
cumstances in order to redeem a hopelessly lost humanity. 
By interpreting Christianity in this way the apologists 
probably did more to secure its place in that world than they 
could have done by adopting outright the more rational 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 305 

methods of philosophy. Although the mythical deities of 
Greece and Rome were no longer generally revered, the mythi- 
cal motive was still strong even among the educated. The 
force of this motive outside of Christianity is amply attested, 
for example, in the abundant allegory of the Stoics. By 
employing this device they recognized, in spite of their insist- 
ence upon the rational (XoyiKos) character of the whole uni- 
verse, that in the realm of religion the functioning significance 
of myth was far stronger than that of reason. 

In mythicizing the Logos by identifying it with an indi- 
vidual the apologists were not doing absolutely original work. 
Their notable predecessor within Christianity was the author 
of the Fourth Gospel, but both he and they had Hellenistic 
predecessors. The outstanding Hellenistic figure who was 
supposed to have functioned as the creative, revealing, redeem- 
ing Logos was Hermes, though various other divine heroes, 
such as Osiris and Thot among the Egyptians, played a similar 
role. When Christians pictured Jesus as the incarnation of the 
enlightening, saving Logos they were but giving further evi- 
dence of their skill and wisdom in reinterpreting his career 
in such way as to make him minister to the needs of that larger 
world to which expanding Christianity was now making its 
appeal. 

Literature. — In addition to appropriate sections of books mentioned 
among ''Qeneral References" (p. 324), see J. Geffcken, Zwei griechische 
Apologeten (Leipzig: Teubjier, 1907); J. Riviere, Saint Justin et les 
apologistes du second siecle (Paris: Bloud, 1907); A. Peuch, Les Apolo- 
gistes grecs du IP siecle de notre ere (Paris: Hachette, 191 2). 

IX. GNOSTICISM 

General characteristics. — ^Another effort to connect early 
Christianity with contemporary Hellenicism was made in the 
movement commonly termed Gnosticism. This attempt was 
much more thoroughgoing than that of the apologists, it pro- 
ceeded along quite different lines, and it met with strong 



3o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

opposition from Christians themselves. The apologists 
subordinated speculation to the faith of the worshiping com- 
munity, they dealt mainly with the christological problem, 
and they kept Christianity bound up closely with the Jewish 
Scriptures. The Gnostics, on the other hand, made specula- 
tion paramount, they freely deviated from the traditional 
opinions of the community, their main problem was soteriology 
rather than Christology, and they generally sought to sever 
Christianity from its Jewish connections. 

There was still another fundamental difference between the 
Gnostics and the apologists. In so far as the latter were con- 
trolled by speculative interests they inclined toward the 
monistic world- view of the Stoics and endeavored by a shifty 
use of the Logos-idea to fit into this philosophical schema the 
essentially contradictory notion of a special supernatural 
revelation mediated through the Jewish Scripture and the 
Christian cult. On the contrary, the Gnostics were out-and- 
out dualists. The good and the evil worlds were sharply con- 
trasted, and were not united by any natural bond. Man 
belonged to the evil world, his soul only having any original 
connection with the good, and in his present state he was 
utterly helpless until aid came to him from the supernatural 
realm. And since this help came for the express purpose of 
delivering the soul from the world of evil matter, the divine 
deliverer could have no essential and natural bond of unity 
with matter. Hence the Gnostics' fundamental interest in 
soteriology and their comparative lack of interest in the his- 
torical man Jesus whom the apologists sought to define in 
terms of the Logos incarnation. 

The antecedents of Gnosticism. — In order to understand 
the ger^ius of Christian Gnosticism one must glance briefly at 
its antecedents. It used to be said that Gnosticism resulted 
from a fusion of Greek philosophy and Christianity in the 
second century, but the investigations of recent years have 
shown the inadequacy of this hypothesis. Scholars now 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 307 

recognize a pre-Christian as well as a Christian Gnosticism, 
its philosophical basis in each case being far more oriental 
than Hellenic. It is Hellenistic to be sure, in that it com- 
bines Hellenic and oriental elements, but the latter largely 
predominate. For instance, Gnostic dualism is not of the 
Platonic type which distinguishes between an ideal and 
invisible world on the one hand and a real and visible one on 
the other, the latter being modeled after the former. In con- 
trast with Plato, Gnostic dualism posited two opposing 
dominions within the visible world, one presided over by the 
powers of darkness and the other belonging to the kingdom 
of light. Matter was wholly evil, and only through a divine 
redemption could the human soul be delivered from its 
bondage in matter. Hence salvation meant deliverance from 
the dominion of evil — a deliverance to be realized by the 
individual through a knowledge of the good Deity as revealed 
in the teaching and sacraments of the cult. Therefore knowl- 
edge (ypooais, gnosis) in the Gnostic sense has nothing to do 
with philosophical knowledge in the Greek sense of the word, 
but is an affair of supernatural revelation. These, and a 
host of other distinctive Gnostic notions which might be 
mentioned, prove beyond question the genuinely oriental 
character of the movement — whether we trace it ultimately 
to Persia, Babylonia, or Egypt. 

Relation to Paul. — At the outset it must be apparent 
that Paul was to some extent influenced by this same type 
of oriental thinking. His duahstic world-view, Hke that of 
other Jews of his day, was essentially oriental. For him 
''flesh" was a serious hindrance to spiritual Hfe, even if he 
did not assign a wholly evil origin to matter. The prac- 
tically hopeless condition of the human soul in its natural 
state, and the absolute necessity of supernatural redemption, 
were also characteristic Pauline ideas. The notion of an 
indwelHng heavenly possession within the behever — which he 
usually called Spirit rather than gnosis— his deprecatory 



3o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

estimate of marriage, and his pessimistic view of the present 
world generally are all of a piece with the pre-Christian 
Gnostic way of thinking. 

But Paul was quite un-Gnostic in supposing that the 
world of matter could have been created by the good Deity, 
and in holding that supernatural revelation came through spe- 
cific historical events, such as the giving of the Law to Moses 
or the advent of Jesus. These and other differences separated 
Paul from the pre-Christian Gnostics, yet tFe similarity be- 
tween him and them was so close that Gnosticism and Chris- 
tianity fused most readily in the realm of Paulinism. As a 
consequence of this fact the main stream of Christianity, 
which ran counter to the gnosticizing of the new religion, 
also practically rejected Paul during the period when the 
Gnostic movement was most aggressive. This situation 
prevailed all through post-apostolic times as well as during the 
age of the early apologists. 

Earliest contact with Christianity. — Previous to the rise 
of definite Christian Gnostic leaders who established inde- 
pendent Gnostic movements, traces of Gnostic influence upon 
Christianity appear in several quarters even outside of the 
Pauline epistles. The false teachers of early post-apostolic 
days (see above, p. 296) usually represent some form of 
this speculation, although they sometimes differed widely 
from one another, since Gnosticism was not really a uniform 
system but a family of kindred tendencies in thinking. For 
example, within the churches addressed by the author of 
Revelation there were members who claimed to be so thor- 
oughly enlightened and free from this world that, they could 
visit the heathen feasts, or even break the rules of chastity, 
with impunity. They seem to have thought that since 
Gnostic salvation was an affair of the spirit only it was of Httle 
or no consequence what the mortal body did when once the 
spirit had become thoroughly enlightened. In the epistles 
of John and of Ignatius we meet with Christians who apply 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 309 

the Gnostic notion of matter to Christ and affirm that he, 
being a truly divine dehverer, cannot have been really 
united to a body of sinful flesh — ^and all flesh was evil. His 
residence in the body of the man Jesus was said to be only 
temporary, extending merely from baptism to the crucifixion 
(Adoptionism) ; or else he never had a real body at all, but 
was only an apparition (Docetism). Again, in the Pastoral 
Epistles, as in Colossians, certain Christian teachers boast of 
their pneumatic equipment and show a fondness for Gnostic 
speculation regarding angels and aeons. Poly carp refers to 
other errorists who, true to the Gnostic doctrine of matter's 
evil character, deny that there will ever be any resurrection 
of the body. 

The chief Gnostic leaders.— The full significance of 
Gnosticism for the history of early Christianity does not 
appear until a definite and influential Gnostic leadership arises. 
Many of its champions were evidently persons of force and 
character, but unfortunately our knowledge of them is con- 
fined almost wholly to information derived from their oppo- 
nents. There are a few original documents extant in Coptic 
translations and some lengthy quotations are preserved in the 
writings of the Fathers (e.g., Irenaeus, TertuUian, Hippolytus, 
Clement of Alexandria, Origen). But often little more than 
the name of a teacher, or the name of some school, is known. 

The Christian Gnostic movement arose early and in differ- 
ent parts of the Mediterranean world. The Ophites and the 
Naassenes are names commonly appHed to a very early 
type of this speculation, in which the pre-Christian features 
are especially in evidence. Among specific teachers, at the 
close of the first century Cerinthus appears in Asia, and at 
about the same time Satornilus (Saturninus) , whose prede- 
cessors were Simon Magus and Menander, taught in Syria. 
But Alexandria is especially noted as the home of the move- 
ment. Here Basilides estabhshed a school about the year 
130 A.D., either selecting or composing a special gospel, and 



3IO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

writing a commentary upon it in twenty-four books. More 
famous still was Valentinus {ca. 150 a.d.), who worked first 
in Alexandria and then in Rome. His pupil Theodotus estab- 
lished a school in the East and another pupil, Ptolemaeus, 
estabHshed one in the West. From about 145 to 165 a.d. 
Marcion was an influential Gnostic teacher at Rome, and 
communities representing his particular views soon sprang 
up in different parts of the Mediterranean world. He is 
especially noted for his efforts to persuade the church that 
the Jewish sacred Scriptures should be displaced by a specifi- 
cally Christian canon composed of the Gospel of Luke and the 
Epistles of Paul. In the latter part of the second and early 
in the third century Eastern Gnosticism had a powerful 
champion in Bardesanes of Edessa. 

The Gnostic system. — The Gnostic movement was so com- 
plex, and individual Gnostics exercised so large a measure of 
personal hberty in thinking, that no specific Gnostic system 
of Christian theology can be exactly defined. But its main 
characteristics are ascertainable, and a brief sketch of these 
will serve to show the skilful way in which the movement 
met some of the most perplexing problems of that age. 

1 . The chief feature of Gnosticism was its sharp separation 
between the god of hght and the god of darkness, with their 
respective divine associates. These two groups of divinities 
were supposed to be constantly carrying on a fierce conflict 
with one another for the possession of the human soul. The 
scene of conflict was the earth where man now dwelt, and also 
the upper air through which the soul must pass on its way 
to the highest heavens. 

2. This material world, and the material body containing 
the soul, were beHeved to be wholly evil. Matter was evil 
because it had been created by the evil powers. The creator 
of the present world cannot have been a good god, else the 
world would have been wholly good, but man knew by 
experience that it was not good. Therefore its creator must 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 311 

be bad. Thus the Gnostics offered — if we grant their premises 
— a very simple solution of the ever-present problem of evil. 

3. The soul of man did not originally belong to this world 
of created matter. It was a fragment from the realm of light 
which by some mishap had sunk down and become entangled 
in evil matter. Here it abode in ignorance and agony, 
utterly unable of itself to fight its way back to the realm of 
light whence it had fallen. 

4. But a way of salvation had been provided. Another 
and more powerful emissary from the realm of Hght had 
descended into this realm of darkness in order to bring aid 
to the helpless soul. Originally this deliverer seems to have 
been conceived of as a principle of salvation, or a hypostasis, 
rather than a person. But it was portrayed in mythical form 
under the image of the Primal Man (cf. the Son of Man of 
Jewish and Christian apocalyptic), the Heavenly Mother, 
and — in Christian Gnosticism — the pre-existent Christ. 

5. This aid was mediated to specific souls by means of the 
cultus. Through the rites of initiation and worship the 
individual received a new increment from the world of light 
by which he learned the secrets of divine wisdom enabhng 
his soul to pass safely all the gateways on the road to heaven. 

6. Different individuals might attain different degrees of 
enlightenment, but every believer received a new guiding 
power in his hfe which freed him from the bondage of the 
flesh. The logic of this beHef often led to asceticism. Since 
matter was evil, the appetites of the body were to be sup- 
pressed, and since the begetting of children meant the per- 
petuation of evil matter, marriage ought also to be avoided. 
In some cases, however, the exaltation of the enlightened 
mind over matter was made to justify Kbertinism. One 
might let the body have its way, since the enhghtened spirit 
only counted for things eternal. 

7. This depreciation of the physical body determined the 
Gnostics' notion of the earthly Jesus. The man Jesus of 



312 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Nazareth could have no central place in their system; they 
needed only the pre-existent angelic Christ. Though they 
adopted the myth of the God-man as a means of portraying 
concretely the scheme of redemption, they were loath to allow 
that he had any natural connection with an actual human 
being. Some said that he was only an apparition while on 
earth (Cerinthus) , others thought that he resided temporarily 
in the man Jesus (Basilides), while others employed the 
notion of a virgin birth as a means of obtaining a unique body 
worthy to enshrine this heavenly spirit (so the later Valen- 
tinians) . 

8. The Gnostics' view of matter was logically accompanied 
by an inferior estimate of the worth of human history. They 
rejected Judaism, along with the popular Christian notion 
that the Old Testament was a divine revelation. Most 
Gnostics said that the creation of evil matter must have been 
the work of an inferior evil deity, hence the Jews had been 
worshiping a demon rather than the god of light. Inci- 
dentally, Christianity was thereby relieved of the embarrass- 
ment of explaining its connections with the unpopular Jewish 
race. 

9. Since revelation was not to be found in Judaism it was 
located in Christianity alone. So the leading Gnostics 
proceeded to canonize distinctively Christian writings and to 
elaborate them by extended works of interpretation. Thus 
it was in the Gnostic movement that Christianity first found 
fluent hterary expression as well as the stimulus for assembling 
a New Testament canon of Scripture. 

The historical significance of Gnosticism. — Notwithstand- 
ing the fact that the Gnostics were condemned as heretics, 
the movement they represented cannot have failed to satisfy 
numerous popular needs peculiar to the situation of that age. 
Indeed, orthodox Christianity actually enriched itself both 
by absorbing certain features of Gnosticism and by developing 
new phases within its own Hfe to offset similar items in the 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 313 

heretical movements. A few illustrations of these lines of 
development should be particularly observed. 

1. The growth of Christian asceticism within the orthodox 
communities, finally resulting in monasticism, was doubtless 
greatly stimulated by the Gnostic notion of matter. And it 
is possible that the Gnostic idea of divine knowledge as a per- 
sonal attainment of the individual soul may also have con- 
tributed to the development of mysticism within the church. 

2. The importance which Gnostics attached to the rites of 
the cult as a means of insuring divine wisdom necessary to 
salvation is reflected in orthodox circles, where there was an 
increasing disposition all through the second and third cen- 
turies to emphasize the sacramental significance of rites. 
Gnostic influence may have tended to enrich the liturgy, 
especially in the realm of hymnology, for the Gnostics were 
pre-eminently the hymn-writers of their day. 

3. In resisting Gnostic Christology the Christians of post- 
apostolic times were led to give much more attention than 
their predecessors in the Apostolic Age had done to collecting 
and reporting tradition regarding the actual earthly Jesus. 
Thanks to this incentive a considerable body of gospel tra- 
dition was put into circulation and four representative docu- 
ments of this class were finally given first place in the new 
official collection of Christian writings. While the orthodox 
thus sought to dismiss Gnostic views, it was nevertheless true 
that the Gnostics bequeathed to Christendom a set of christo- 
logical problems which have long continued to trouble theo- 
logians. 

4. Another very significant effect of the Gnostics' work 
was the development of an interest in apostoKc authority. 
Here they- set the example by discarding the authority of the 
Old Testament which all through the first century had con- 
stituted the Christians' main source of appeal. On the other 
hand. Gnostic writers appealed to apostolic heroes and the 
writings which had come from them, and not infrequently 



314 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

the Gnostics showed themselves past-masters at the art of 
pseudonymous Hterary production. This situation stimu- 
lated orthodoxy to discover and set up what it held to be a 
genuine apostolic authority over against the pseudo-authority 
of the heretics. The ultimate outcome of this process was 
the production of a New Testament to which the Old was 
subordinated. Incidentally this also meant the rescumg of 
Paul from the Gnostics. Orthodox writers Hke Justin had 
avoided reference to Paul, who was the mainstay of the 
heretics, but once the New Testament canon was established 
Paul was reinstated — at least in form if not in spirit. 

5. One of the earliest and most notable effects of incipient 
Gnosticism is seen in the tendency to establish within orthodox 
circles a stated leadership to displace the older functional ideal 
of trusting to the guidance of pneumatic individuals. Even as 
early as the time of Ignatius this point was especially stressed. 
The false teachers claimed for themselves full pneumatic 
powers, and doubtless in the eyes of the populace they often 
successfully justified their claim. Hence the need of regularly 
appointed officers with supreme authority to dispose of false 
prophets. The result was a claim of apostohc authority for 
officials as well as for canonical books. 

6. In a word, the whole trend of the church's development 
in reaction against the numerous and powerful Gnostic move- 
ments of the second century was toward Catholicism with its 
stated officials, its fixed New Testament canon, its uniform 
rule of faith, and its universal control. Gnosticism, on the 
other hand, was so individualistic in its emphasis and so 
diversified that it failed to develop the unity of interest and 
organization necessary to withstand successfully the resistance 
of a more formally united orthodoxy. 

Literature. — For introductory purposes see the excellent articles 
on ''Gnosticism" by E. F. Scott in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion 
and Ethics and by W. Bousset in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, nth ed. 
More detailed treatment will be found in W. Bousset, Hauptprobleme der 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 315 

Gnosis (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1907); E. de Faye, 
Gnostiques et gnosticisme (Paris: Leroux, 19 13); and C. W. King, The 
Gnostics and Their Remains, 2d ed. (London: Nutt, 1887). For collec- 
tions of source materials see G. R. S. Mead, Fragments of a Faith 
Forgotten (London and Benares: Theosophical Pub. Soc, 1900); A. Hil- 
genfeld, Ketzergeschichte des Urchristentums (Leipzig: Fues, 1884); W. 
Schultz, Dokumente der Gnosis (Jena: Dieterichs, 1910); C. Schmidt, 
Koptisch-gnostische Schriften, I, Die Pistis Sophia (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 
1905). Also consult "General References," below, pp. 324. 

X. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 

The emergence of the Catholic idea. — The impetus toward 
universality, which was brought prominently into the fore- 
ground, and in no small measure engendered, by the Gnostic 
controversy, finally issued in the complete catholicizing of 
orthodox Christianity. This process was well under way 
before the end of the second century, and it continued to gain 
momentum during the succeeding years. By the close of the 
third century it was complete in all essentials. In every quar- 
ter of the Roman Empire communities of Christian behevers 
existed under an established form of organization; from time 
to time synods met to settle new issues; and the notion of a 
universal Christendom, at least ideally self-consistent in all its 
parts, had come to full consciousness. 

Outstanding leaders of the period. — During these days 
of crystallization Christianity in various parts of the Empire 
enjoyed the leadership of a number of notable individuals. In 
many instances their writings have been preserved and con- 
stitute important sources of information for the student. 
A brief notice of the more significant leaders will be a con- 
venient way of approach to the history of the period. 

The most prominent figure in the West is that of Irenaeus, 
bishop of Lyons, in Gaul during the closing decades of the 
second century. His only extant work deals with the heretics, 
whom he vigorously opposes. He appeals especially to the 
authority of apostohc tradition, handed down through 



3i6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

properly appointed successors of the apostles and guarded by 
the true church. This authority is twofold. In the first place 
the written Gospels contain the pure apostolic teaching. But 
in addition to this each church continues to be under leaders 
standing in direct line of succession from the apostles who 
everywhere appointed bishops in the churches. And to make 
the matter more sure Irenaeus cites the church at Rome as 
the supreme authority. With this church all others must 
agree, since apostolic tradition is necessarily always self- 
consistent. Hence all those who hold ''perverse opinions" 
or assemble in ''unauthorized meetings" are to be put to 
confusion by appealing to "the very great, the very ancient 
and universally known church founded and organized at 
Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; 
.... for it is a matter of necessity that every church should 
agree with this church on account of its pre-eminent authority" 
(III,iii, 2). 

The regular bishops at Rome during this general period 
were not men of great literary activity. The most prolific 
Roman writer was Hippolytus, who flourished in the first 
quarter of the third century. He was a prominent presbyter 
and later became a rival leader beside the regular bishop, 
whom Hippolytus accused of laxity in dealing with heretics 
and sinners. In variety and extent his literary activities 
rivaled those of his younger Eastern contemporary, Origen, 
but only a relatively small part of Hippolytus' writings has 
been preserved. Among these is a Refutation of All Heresies. 
This gives ample evidence that he was a champion, of the 
cathoHcizing principle, notwithstanding his break with the 
contemporary Roman bishop. 

In the province of Africa Tertullian and Cyprian were 
the most noted leaders. The proHfic hterary work of the 
former was done in the early years of the third century. He 
covered the whole range of Christian apologetic, defending 
the new religion against persecution, attacking heretics, and 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 317 

refuting both heathen and Jewish critics. He also produced 
a number of treatises of a practical sort, and was really the 
creator of an ecclesiastical hterature in the Latin tongue. 
Although he joined the heretical movement known as Montan- 
ism, he was in essential agreement with Irenaeus in upholding 
the authority of apostolic tradition preserved within the 
ecclesiastical organism. Moreover, he was the first Westerner 
to make any substantial contribution toward the elaboration 
of a Christian theology. His guiding principle, however, was 
not Hellenistic philosophical speculation, but juristic notions 
which. he inherited from his training as a Roman advocate. 

Cyprian was converted to Christianity shortly before the 
middle of the third century, and within a few years became 
bishop of the Carthaginian church, which he continued to guide 
until his martyrdom in 258 A. d. He had more of the instincts 
of a pastor than of a theologian, and wrote large numbers of 
letters dealing with various contemporary problems. Yet 
he also was the author of apologetic and doctrinal treatises, as 
well as works dealing with questions of conduct and church 
pohty. Especially important in the present connection is 
his De unitate ecclesiae. Against the heretics he maintained 
that there was no possibility of salvation outside the estab- 
lished ecclesiastical organization — ''he who has not the church 
for a mother cannot have God for a father" (chap. 6). And 
the church is one, since Christ founded it on Peter. Augustine 
has very fittingly termed Cyprian catholicum episcopum, catholi- 
cum martyrem {De bapt., Ill, iii, 5). 

While the leaders in the West were incorporating into 
Christianity the Roman genius for organized government, 
the leaders in the East were working out a system of Chris- 
tian doctrine in conformity with the philosophical genius of 
the Greeks . The misnamed ' ' catechical school ' ' of Alexandria 
— a kind of Christian university — ^had arisen during the second 
century. Here Christian teachers were familiarizing them- 
selves with the whole range of Greek science and seeking to 



3i8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

employ this knowledge in the service of their religion. The 
school existed beside others of a similar character — some 
Gnostic, some pagan — for which Alexandria was noted, but 
of its beginnings absolutely nothing is known. It first comes 
to Kght about i8o a.d. with Pantaenus at its head. Toward 
the close of the century he was succeeded by Clement, whose 
writings are the earhest extant Hterary products of the school. 
In expounding Christianity as a world-reHgion Clement em- 
ploys the notion of the Logos, but in the use of this conception 
he is not hampered as the earlier apologists were by slavish 
attachment to the cultus. He is thoroughly ecclesiastical, in 
that he adheres to the notion of a prescribed rule of faith, but 
he would universalize Christianity by an individualistic 
rather than an organic process. The Logos-experience is 
available for every member of the human race, which has been 
created, educated, and redeemed by the Logos. Moreover, 
knowledge (gnosis) is the key to salvation and the true 
Christian is the true ''Gnostic." But Clement's gnosis is of 
the Greek type, in contrast with the oriental sacramental 
conception current among the Gnostics. Notwithstanding 
Clement's interest in the field of Greek science, he did not 
really work out any systematic scheme of Christian doctrine? 
This was done first by Origen. He was Clement's suc- 
cessor as head of the school of Alexandria, but the latter part 
of his life was spent at Caesarea, where he conducted an 
independent school. He produced a vast number of works, 
several of which are still extant. These include hortatory, 
apologetic, textual, exegetical, and doctrinal treatises. To 
this last class belongs his De principiis in which he works out 
the first real system of Christian doctrine ever written. 
Though Origen was an ecclesiastic, in that he believed that the 
church supplies to men the correct rule of faith, yet in his 
own thinking it was neither the authority of the cultus nor 
the authority of a canon of Scripture which constituted his 
ultimate norm. To be sure, he made the Logos revelation 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY .319 

the ground of the Christian's knowledge, but it was by means 
of philosophy — that is, by the use of the speculative rational 
faculty — that Origen really sought to discover the true revela- 
tion of the Logos, in the hght of which he interpreted the his- 
tory and content of Christianity. 

Internal conflicts. — The main trend of Christianity during 
the closing years of the second, and throughout the third, 
century was toward universality and uniformity. Yet there 
were still within the movement many differences of opinion 
and practice. The consequence was a series of internal 
conflicts which marked the growth of the church in this 
period. 

1 . At the very beginning of the period the Easter con- 
troversy arose. It concerned a difference of practice between 
the Roman church and the churches of Asia. The latter, 
tracing their authority to the apostle John, celebrated Easter 
on the fourteenth of the month Nisan regardless of the day 
of the week. On the other hand, the Roman church insisted 
that the celebration ought always to take place on a Sunday. 
This difference of opinion brought on a sharp debate which for 
a time threatened to rend the East from the West. 

2. A second question concerned the treatment of those 
who had committed some unusual sin, especially those who 
denied the faith in times of persecution. From an early 
date murder, adultery, and lapsing had generally been regarded 
as unpardonable sins. But in the course of time a more, 
generous attitude was assumed, especially toward the lapsed 
and some bishops reinstated these persons after a proper form 
of repentance had been secured. But the matter caused 
much sharp controversy, men hke Hippolytus in one genera- 
tion and Cyprian in the next holding opposite views on the 
question. 

3. Chris tological disputes also broke out anew. The main 
hne of orthodox speculation employed the Logos-idea as a 
means of preserving monotheism while still regarding Jesus 



320 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

as God. A different explanation was offered by the so-called 
Monarchians, who did not make use of the Logos. The 
*' dynamic" Monarchians affirmed that Jesus was possessed 
by an impersonal power (dwafXLs) from God. But the 
'^modalistic" Monarchians personaHzed the divine insert, 
and found the difference between the Father and the Son in 
the mode of manifestation rather than in the character of 
the personality. 

4. Two new and influential heresies came into prominence 
during the third century. These were Montanism and 
Manicheism. The former had arisen in Phrygia in the sixth 
decade of the second century, and fifty years later it was 
powerful enough to draw to itself TertuUian in North Africa. 
The Montanists beheved in the continued activity of the 
Holy Spirit among believers, they retained vivid eschatological 
expectations, and they insisted upon rigid ethical require- 
ments, not alone for the clergy, but for all Christians. On the 
other hand, the church in general had come to look askance at 
pneumatic enthusiasm to which false teachers so readily laid 
claim ; the realistic eschatological hope was growing dim with 
the passing of the years and with the betterment of the Chris- 
tians' lot in the present world; and there had arisen a double 
standard of morality, a select class of persons being expected 
to attain to a high degree of perfection while the masses Kved 
on a lower level. The Montanists' efforts to restore the 
simplicity of earlier days met with a measure of success, but 
the movement was essentially anachronistic and so destined 
to failure. 

Manicheism, in some respects closely akin to Gnosticism, 
was largely a composite of Persian and Babylonian ideas. In 
•eahty it was a revival of oriental speculation thinly overlaid 
mth a veneer of Christian ideas; nevertheless it became an 
important rival of Christianity, especially in Persia. 

5. One other debated question related to the vaHdity of 
baptism when performed by heretics. This controversy 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 321 

did not continue long, but it was troublesome for a time. 
At Rome the bishop Stephen (254-57) pronounced the sacra- 
ment vahd in itself and received the converted heretic without 
repeating the rite. But Cyprian in Africa contended with 
equal vigor for the opposite course of procedure. The 
former opinion prevailed, although the latter found new 
champions in the Donatist movement of the next century. 

Contemporary relationships. — During these days of Catho- 
lic crystallization the relations between the church and the 
contemporary life of the Graeco-Roman world became 
increasingly intimate. Converts were no longer drawn mainly 
from one class of society, as in apostolic and early post- 
apostolic times. Representatives from all classes were now to 
be found within the Christian communities. An educated 
pagan rhetorician like Cyprian and a Roman jurist like 
Tertullian each brought his own distinctive personaHty and 
heritage into the service of the new religion. In a less con- 
spicuous way the same thing was going on all over the Medi- 
terranean world, and thus Christianity began to win a real 
place for itself among the recognized social and religious 
forces of the age. 

This growth inevitably led to further conflicts with the 
state authorities. For years Christians had been objects 
of sporadic hostile action on the part of an emperor or a 
governor, but Decius (249-51) undertook a more systematic 
suppression of Christianity as a means of restoring the old 
religions of the state. This new form of persecution, recurring 
especially under Valerian (253-60), Diocletian (284-305), and 
Galerius (305-11), was of much importance for the final 
estabHshment of the Catholic church as a recognized institu- 
tion in the Roman state. 

Attempts to revive the old pagan faiths and the growth of 
rival oriental cults called forth from Christians new attacks 
upon contemporary paganism. Striking examples of this 
apologetic are still extant in the writings of Arnobius, 



322 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Lactantius, and Firmicus Maternus. At the same time the 
Christian cult was developing sides of its own life which 
mediated more fully to its votaries the religious values attach- 
ing to rival faiths, and this process of adaptation ultimately 
proved to be one of Christianity's strongest anti-pagan 
weapons. 

Among the educated, neo-Platonism was also a trouble- 
some enemy of Christianity in the third century. Porphyry 
in particular was a bitter foe of the Christian faith, and wrote 
a work of fifteen books Against the Christians. But also in 
this crisis Christian leaders presently arose who proved 
equal to the task of incorporating a large measure of neo- 
Pla tonic thinking into the church. 

Triumph of the monarchical ideal. — Christianity finally 
triumphed over all rivals and became the one rehgion of the 
Roman state. Ultimately its chief official, the bishop of 
Rome, was recognized as the supreme authority, not alone in 
matters of religion, but also in the realm of politics and science. 

Many things contributed toward this result. Among these 
contributory factors were rich inheritances taken over from 
Judaism, the personal work of Jesus and the early missionary 
preachers, the new phases of Christian thinking or practice 
which were worked out as a result of contact with other cults 
already popular in the pagan world, the adoption of oriental 
speculations and Greek philosophies, and the ever-repeated 
personal religious experiences and energies of the numerous 
and able leaders who from time to time espoused the new 
cause. Moreover, all these factors were mingled within an 
enlarging social organism wide enough in its range to include 
many types of personality and opinion, and yet distinctive 
enough in its moral and religious ideals to ehcit the loyal 
support of its members. But as a force in the Roman state 
Christianity attained its final success not immed'ately through 
its religious and moral idealism, nor yet through its power 
as a philosophy of religion. Its triumph was ultimately due 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 323 

to its momentum as an organized worshiping community, a 
formal cult with a strong monarchical organization. 

The monarchical principle was the dominant social ideal of 
that age. Ever since the time of Alexander the Great this 
principle had been in the ascendancy. The democratic 
Greek city-state had given way before the world-dominion of a 
single overlord in the person of Alexander. The same ideal 
was maintained by his successors and their descendants; 
and finally republican Rome yielded to the monarchical 
impulse, even going so far as to deify the emperor. When 
Christianity adopted the monarchical principle, establishing 
a single rehgious empire throughout the Mediterranean 
world, it caught the spirit of the times more truly than did 
any of its contemporary rehgions. Mithraism was its nearest 
rival in this respect, and as a matter of fact was its most 
serious competitor, but the mithraic monarchy remained 
primarily an affair of the gods, while Christianity had both 
a heavenly monarchical ideal and its earthly counterpart in 
a monarchically organized church. Even in the second 
century, when Christianity began to present a united front to 
the world, it was already on the way to become the state 
church of the Roman Empire. And in succeeding generations 
its leaders proved capable of grasping more firmly the spirit 
of the age and turning it to account in the interests of the 
new movement. Whether they themselves were ever fully 
conscious of the ultimate possibilities of their action is very 
doubtful, but their work resulted in giving organized Chris- 
tianity so strong a grip upon Roman society that on June 13, 
313 A.D., the emperors Constantine and Licinius fully legalized 
the new cult. Under Theodosius the Great it was elevated 
above all rivals and became the only legal rehgion of the 
Empire (392 a.d.). Thus the Kingdom of God was finally 
established upon earth — ^though in a very different manner 
from that in which the Christians of earlier times had expected 
its establishment. 



324 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Literature. — R. Rainy, The Ancient Catholic Church (New York: 
Scribner, 1902); P. Battifol, UEglise naissante et le catholicisme (Paris: 
Lecoffre, 1909; English translation, Primitive Catholicism [London: 
Longmans, 1911]). See also ''General References" below. 

General references. — In addition to literature already cited in con- 
nection with special topics, a few works of a more general character 
should be mentioned. 

Regarding the documents from which historical information is to be 
derived see, in addition to works on New Testament introduction referred 
to above (p. 199), C. T. Cruttwell, A Literary History of Early Christianity, 
including the Fathers and the Chief Heretical Writers of the Ante-Nicene 
Period, 2 vols. (New York: Scribner, 1893); A. Harnack, Geschichte 
der altchristlichen Litter atur his Eusebius, 3 Bde. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 
1893-1904); G. Kriiger, Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur in den 
erstendreiJahrhunderten, 2. Au^. (Fveihurg: Mohr, 1898; English trans- 
lation. History of Early Christian Literature in the First Three Centuries 
[New York: Macmillan, 1897]); H. Jordan, Geschichte der altchristlichen 
Litteratur (Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer, 191 1); O. Stahlin, "Christliche 
Schrif tsteller " in W. von Christ's Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur, 
5. Aufl. (Miinchen: Beck, 1913), II, ii, 907-1146; M. Schanz, Geschichte 
der romischen Litteratur, 2. Aufl. (Miinchen: Beck, 1905), III, 240-495; 
O. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur (Freiburg: 
Herder, 1902 ff.), and Patrologie, 3. Aufl. (Freiburg: Herder, 1910; 
EngHsh translation, Patrology [St. Louis: Herder, 1908]). On the New 
Testament Apocrypha see especially E. Hennecke, Handhuch zu den 
neutestamentlichen Apokryphen and Neutestamentliche Apokryphen in 
deutscher Uehersetzung und mit Einleitungen (Tubingen: Mohr, 1904). 

The critical editions of the original texts of both Greek and Latin 
writers are usually listed in the above-mentioned works on the literature. 
For the New Testament see above, p. 209. For extra- canonical writings 
the most complete series is that of Migne, Patrologia Graeca (Paris, 
1857 ff.) and Patrologia Latina (Paris, 1844 ff.). A more critical edition 
of Greek authors is in process of publication in Die griechischen christ- 
lichen Schrif tsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte, herausgegeben von 
der Kir chenvater- Commission der koniglich-preussischen Akademie der 
Wissenschaften (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1897 ff.). The Corpus scriptorum 
ecclesiasticorum latinorum of the Vienna Academy (1866 ff.) performs a 
similar service for Latin authors. In some instances convenient editions 
of particular writers are available, e.g., J. B. Lightfoot and J. R. Har- 
mer, The Apostolic Fathers (London: Macmillan, 1898); K. Lake, 
The Apostolic Fathers [Loeb Classical Library], 2 vols. (New York: 
Macmillan, 19 13); E. Preuschen, Antilegomena: Die Reste der ausser- 



THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 325 

kanonischen Evangelien und urchristlichen Ueberlieferungen, 2. Aufl. 
(Giessen: Topelmann, 1905); E. J. Goodspeed, Die dltesten Apologeten 
(Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 19 14). 

English translations are printed with the texts in the editions of 
Lightfoot-Harmer and Lake (also a German translation in Preuschen). 
The most complete set of English translations is that of the Ante-Nicene 
Fathers (New York: Scribner, 1885 ff.)- Selections are printed in J. C. 
Ayer, A Source-Book for Ancient Church History from the Apostolic Age to 
the Close of the Conciliary Period (New York: Scribner, 19 13). 

For archaeological sources of information see W. Lowrie, Monu- 
ments of the Early Church (New York: Macmillan, 1906). 

The general history of the period is covered by all the standard works 
on church history, of which the more recent and serviceable are A. H. 
Newman, A Manual of Church History, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: American 
Baptist Pub. Soc, 1899-1902); K. Miiller, Kirchengeschichte, 2 Bde. 
(Freiburg: Mohr, 1892-1902); W. Moller, Lehrbuch der Kirchenge- 
schichte, 3 Bde., 3. Aufl., von H. von Schubert and G. Kawerau (Tu- 
bingen : Mohr, 1907; English translation, History of the Christian Church, 
3 vols. [New York: Macmillan, 1892 ff.]); G. Kriiger, Handbuch der 
Kirchengeschichte fUr Studierende, Erster Teil, Das Alter tum, von E. 
Preuschen und G. Kriiger (Tiibingen: Mohr, 191 1). 

Works especially worthy of note on the early period alone are A. 
Harnack, Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei 
Jahrhunderten, 2 Bde., 2. Aufl. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1906; English trans- 
lation, The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three 
Centuries, 2 vols., 2d ed. [New York: Putnam, 1908]); O. Pfleiderer, 
Das Urchristentum, seine Schriften und Lehren, 2 Bde., 2. Aufl. (Berlin: 
Reimer, 1902; English translation. Primitive Christianity, 4 vols. [New 
York: Putnam, 1906-11]) ; H. Achelis, Das Christentum in den ersten drei 
Jahrhunderten, 2 Bde. (Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer, 191 2); L. Duchesne, 
Histoire ancienne de Veglise 3 Tomes (Paris: Fontemoing, 1906-11; 
English translation. Early History of the Christian Church from Its 
Foundation to the End of the Third Century, 2 vols. [New York: Longmans, 
1909-13]) . F. Legge, Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity (Cambridge : 
University Press, 1915); J. E. Carpenter, Phases of Early Christianity 
(New York: Putnam, 1916). 

There are numerous special treatises on the persecutions. These 
are listed and commented upon in L. H. Canfield, The Early Persecutions 
of the Christians (New York: Longmans, 1 913), pp. 210-15. Canfield's 
book deals only with the earlier persecutions. For the whole period of 
persecution see especially A. Linsenmayer, Die Bekdmpfung des Christen- 
tums durch den romische Staat bis zum Tode des Kaisers Julian (Miinchen: 



326 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Lentner, 1905) j cf. also H. B. Workman, Persecution in the Early Church 
(London: Kelly, 1906); E. G. Hardy, Studies in -Roman History, First 
Series (London: Allen, 1906), pp. 1-161, being a reprint of the same 
author's valuable book on Christianity and the Roman Government; A. 
Bigelmair, Die Beteiligung der Christen am offentlichen Leben in vorcon- 
stantinischer Zeit (Miinchen: Lentner, 1902). 

On organization and ritual see E. Hatch, The Organization of the 
Early Christian Churches (New York: Longmans, 1895); W. Lowrie, 
The Church and Its Organization (New York: Longmans, 1904); A. 
Harnack, Enstehung und Entwickelung der Kirchenverfassung und des 
Kirchenrechts in den %wei ersten Jahrhunderten (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 19 10; 
English translation. The Constitution and Law of the Church in the First 
Two Centuries [New York: Putnam, 1910]); P. Glaue, Die Vorlesung 
heiliger Schriften im Gottesdienste, I. Teil, Bis zur Entstehung der alt- 
katholischen Kirche (Berlin: Duncker, 1907); A. Harnack, Ueher den 
privaten Gebrauch der heiligen Schriften in der alten Kirche (Leipzig: 
Hinrichs, 191 2; English translation, Bible Reading in the Early Church 
[New York: Putnam, 191 2]); H. Monnier, La Notion de Vapostolat des 
origines a Irenee (Paris: Leroux, 1903) ; J. Reville, Les Origines de r episco- 
pal (Paris: Leroux, 1894), said Les Origines de Teucharistie (Paris: Leroux, 
1908); E. Baumgartner, Eucharistie und Agape im Urchristentum 
(Solothurn: Buch- und Kunstdruckerie, 1909); F.Dihelius, Das Abend- 
mahl. Eine Untersuchung Uber die Anfdnge der christlichen Religion 
(Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 1); H. Windisch, Taufe und Siinde im dltesten 
Christentum bis auf Origenes (TiihingeB.: Mohr, 1908); W, Heitmiiller, 
"Im Namen Jesu^ Eine sprach- und religions geschichtliche Unter- 
suchung zum Neuen Testament, speziell zur altchristlichen Taufe (Gottin- 
gen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1903), and Taufe und Abendmahl im 
Urchristentum (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 1); M. Goguel, U Eucharistie des 
origines a Justin Martyr (Paris: Fischbacher, 1910); E. Lucius, Die 
Anfdnge der HeiligenkuUs in der christlichen Kirche, herausgegeben von 
G. Anrich (Tubingen: Mohr, 1904). 

Of the books dealing with Christian doctrine in this period attention 
may be called especially to A. Harnack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, 
3 Bde., 4. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1909; English translation. History of 
Dogma, 7 vols. [Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1896-1900]); E. Troeltsch, 
Die Soziallehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen (Tubingen: Mohr, 
1912), pp. 1-178; W. Bousset, Kyrios Christos. Geschichte des Christus- 
glaubens von den Anfdngen des Christentums bis Irenaeus (Gottingen: 
Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1913). 



VI. THE DEVELOPMENT AND MEANING OF THE 
CATHOLIC CHURCH 

By FRANCIS ALBERT CHRISTIE 

Professor of Church History, Meadville Theological Seminary, 

Meadville, Pennsylvania 



ANALYSIS 

PAGES 

Introduction: The Problem of Understanding Catholic Chris- 
tianity. — Protestant prejudice and historical interpretation. — The 
development of primitive Christianity into Catholicism . . . 329-330 

1. The Church System of Thought. — ^The development of ecclesi- 
astically approved doctrines. — The main doctrinal problems . . 330-333 

2. The Strengthening of Church Organization. — The effect of 
persecutions on church polity. — The organization of the clergy . . 333-334 

3. Union with the World. — The demand for political unity. — The 
pressure for official doctrinal unity. — Some results of this political 
unification 334-337 

4. The Ideals of Monasticism. — Why did monasticism flourish ? 

5. The Development and Significance of the Greek Catholic Church. 337-338 
— The age of Justinian. — ^The essentials of Eastern orthodoxy . . 338-339 

6. The Problem for Study in the History of Western Catholicism. — 
The meaning of religion in Western Catholicism. — The study of the 
growth of Western Catholicism 339-34° 

7. Western Characteristics. — How does Western Catholicism 

differ from Eastern? — Great personalities in the West . . . 340-342 

8. Monasticism in the West. — Organization and activities. — Influ- 
ence of monasticism 342-344 

9. The Mission of the Papacy. — The ideal of papal policy. — 
The papal ideal and the Kingdom of God. — Church and state. — The 

place of the church in a feudal system . . . . . . . 344-348 



10. Mediaeval Theology. — Its relation to the life of the age 

11. The Decline of the Papacy. — The rise of national loyalties.— 
The development of lay religion. — Mysticism. — The revival o 
classic culture 

12. Suggestions to Students 



348-350 



350-353 
353-355 



VI. THE DEVELOPMENT AND MEANING OF THE 
CATHOLIC CHURCH 

introduction: the problem of understanding catholic 
christianity 

Protestant prejudice and historical interpretation. — The 

idea of Luther most effective with the common people of his 
time was his identification of the Pope and Antichrist. The 
Magdeburg Centuries, the first church history written by a 
Protestant, presented the story of Catholic ages as a warfare 
of the papacy with gospel truth. The religious wars following 
the Reformation developed this bitter hostility to Catholicism 
into a fixed and systematic prejudice which obstructs the 
effort of a Protestant student of history. Since the middle 
of the eighteenth century, however, the spirit of science has 
been winning control of the Protestant mind, and the spirit of 
science requires an ascetic suppression of prejudgments and 
prejudices. Modern Protestantism has the glory of having 
boldly encountered the j>eril of a severely scientific revision 
of the very biblical history to which it appealed as its own 
revealed foundation. A student should feel that the honor of 
this truth-loving modern Protestantism is at stake when he 
essays to understand the mission of the Catholic church in 
history, to see its growth as historically inevitable, and to 
appreciate its service in the civilizing of man. 

Without sympathy no one can truly comprehend a man's 
career or an epoch of human life, and the students of the 
present generation have an interest which gives them the 
sympathy interpretive of Catholic history. The modern 
devotion to the ideal of the Kingdom of God lends meaning 
to the contrast of the church and the world. In that contrast 
''world" means an organization of life which, in spite of the 

329 



330 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

ideal elements contained in it, is dominated essentially by pri- 
mary human instincts for possession and power. Christianity 
is a ''passionate unworldliness " seeking to elevate and trans- 
form the world into the likeness of that order where every 
spirit mirrors the absoluteness of love beheld in God. This 
the student easily recognizes as the dynamic ideal which 
found institutional form in the historic Catholic church. His 
attention is immediately engaged by the problem of explain- 
ing by historical conditions the development of a church which 
could serve this Christian social ideal. 

The development of primitive Christianity into Catholicism. 
— The first Christians were a democratic brotherhood imbued 
with a passionate desire to live the life that Jesus would 
approve. The church when it came was a strongly governed 
sacerdotal institution. The early informal and spontaneous 
effusions of worship became the world's most impressive 
uniform ritual. The dogmas of faith, hope, and love became 
the philosophical dogmas of Trinity and Incarnation. The 
religion that was persecuted became an organized force which 
the state needed to adopt as the spiritual support of its 
power. Bishops of great centers aspired to universal domina- 
tion, and, in the end, the Bishop of Rome became the Pope 
of Western Europe. The purpose of the student is to win an 
intelligible account of the process by which these later con- 
ditions emerged from the simple beginnings. 

I. THE CHURCH SYSTEM OF THOUGHT 

The development of ecclesiastically approved doctrine. — 

The church, as a self -conscious, authoritative institution, 
began to take form at the end of the second. century. React- 
ing against the confusing effects of Gnostic, Marcionist, Mon- 
tanist versions of Christianity, church leaders emphasized 
the controlling value of the original missionary (apostolic) 
teaching as exhibited in the baptismal affirmations (the 
earliest form of the Apostles' Creed), the apostoHc hterature 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 33 1 

(the New Testament), and a public tradition of truth for the 
preservation of which the bishop received a special gift 
(charisma veritatis) on his succession to ofhce. Under the 
restraint of these standards there was a rapid development 
of such a system of thought as could proclaim monotheism, 
give absolute validity to Christ's gospel of love and to the 
hope of eternal life through Christ, and also satisfy perplexity 
concerning the problem of evil. The apologists had already 
claimed absolute validity for Christ's teaching by asserting 
that the Logos spoke in him. The church system grew by an 
elaboration of the Logos doctrine on the part of Irenaeus, 
Tertullian, and Hippolytus in the West and of Clement and 
Origen in the East. 

At first the majority of believers were averse to this 
philosophy of religion,^ but such a philosophy was needed to 
win and hold cultivated minds, especially in view of a rival 
growth of pagan thought in the spiritually impressive system 
of neo-Platonism. The mass of believers were content with 
simpler views. For some it was enough to magnify Jesus 
as a man who by gift of the power of the Holy Spirit became 
the supreme instance of human salvation (Dynamists, 
Adoptionists : Theodotus, Artemon, Paul of Samosata). A 
larger number, following the impKcatioh of the term Lord 
applied to Jesus as Lord of the cult, and yet wishing to be 
faithful to monotheism, denied any humanity in Christ save 
the fleshly form and defined him as a mode of manifestation of 
the one only God (ModaKsm, Sabellianism : Noetus, Praxeas, 
Roman bishops, Sabellius). 

The main doctrinal problems. — These simple views of 
limited scope might satisfy an unreflecting religious reverence 
but could afford no answer to the questions which haunted 
Greek intelligences: how the world of manifold reality had 
its origin from unitary ground, how evil could arise in a world 
divinely originated and governed, how the seeming injustice 

^ Tertullian, Against Praxeas, 3; Origen, Commentary on John, II, sec. 3. 



332 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

and inequality of human experience could be reconciled with 
divine goodness, how the perfecting of man is mediated by 
Christ. To convert the world Christianity must answer these 
large questions. Origen's system gave them ample statement 
and a brilliantly persuasive answer in a general view so satis- 
fying to mind and heart that it carried to victory over Adop- 
tionism and Sabellianism the Christology which he expounded. 
All believers afhrmed a divine background for the life of 
Jesus. Origen conceived Christ as exhibiting and creating 
in the believer in Christ a unison of thought and will between 
the human soul and the Logos. The Logos is a hypostasis 
(person) distinct from God as the Absolute yet of one essence 
with him, and, God being changeless will, eternally and con- 
tinuously generated from the Father to be the creative ground 
and sustaining energy of the world. In fellowship with 
Christ man thus has communion with the divine power 
immanent in the world. Although seen from a later time 
Origen's Christology failed to arrive at what has become 
complete orthodoxy, the enthusiasm justly roused by his 
total view insured the success of his advanced trinitarian and 
christological thought, so that by the middle of the third cen- 
tury the Logos doctrine was dominant in Rome and about 
270 A.D. triumphed over Adoptionism expounded in the East 
by Paul, the bishop of Antioch. From that time on this 
theology was taught in the baptismal instruction and began 
to enter into the tissue of the social mind of Christian com- 
munities. 

Literature. — ^Duchesne^ Histoire ancienne de Veglise (Paris: Fonte- 
moing, 1906-8; English translation, The Early History of the Church 
[New York: Longmans, 19 13]). (A masterpiece of Catholic scholarship 
and literary art. The most interesting to read.) Robert Rainy, The 
Ancient Catholic Church (New York: Scribner, 1902). (A careful 
manual.) H. M. Gwatkin, Early Church History to 313, 2 vols. (London: 
Macmillan, 1909). J. Estlin Carpenter, Phases of Early Christianity 
(New York: Putnam, 1916). George P. Fisher, History of Christian 
Doctrine (New York: Scribner, 1896). Reinhold Seeberg, Grundriss 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 333 

der Dogmengeschichte (Leipzig: Deichert, 1901; English translation, 
Text-hook oj the History of Doctrines [Philadelphia : Lutheran Publication 
Society, 1905]). (This valuable manual provides in translation the 
significant doctrinal utterances of church Fathers.) Adolf Harnack, 
History of Dogma, Vols. I-VII (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1905). 
(A work for advanced students.) 



II. THE STRENGTHENING OF CHURCH ORGANIZATION 

The effect of persecutions on church polity; the organiza- 
tion of the clergy. — The gospel of the infinite significance of 
love had been elaborated into a cosmology and a conception of 
salvation more rational and illuminating than Gnostic circles 
and pagan mystery-cults could offer. It began to draw 
to itself the moral ardor and the higher intelligence of the 
world, and it became formidable to the pagan organization of 
life. The state made its first systematic efforts to suppress 
a religious system of such menace to the sanctities to which 
the Roman imperial power appealed. The emperor Decius 
(250) began a persecution of ten years' duration, but by 
reason of the numbers, the social status, and the devotion 
of the Christians the attack was doomed to failure, and the 
effect on the church itself was to strengthen it as an institution 
by adding firmness to clerical authority. Controversies over 
the policy of bishops in dealing with men tempted to apos.- 
tasy resulted in schismatic churches, but the result was that 
the bishop became absolute monarch of the local church; the 
church indispensable to salvation was to be found in the 
bishop's office, and the world-unity of Christianity was defined 
(Cyprian of Carthage, 251) as resting in the totality of bishops. 
Presbyters and deacons were no longer officers of the con- 
gregation but delegates of an episcopate sovereign in doc- 
trine and discipline and clothed now with the sanctity of the 
Old Testament priesthood. The situation produced by the 
Decian persecution, the ecclesiastical policy and formulations 
of Cyprian, and the conflict between Cyprian and Stephen 



334 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

of Rome arrest the attention of the student and enable him 
to see the relation of historical conditions to the emergence 
of the sacerdotal power which so defines Catholicism. With 
the provision of penance for apostates the church definitely 
ceased to be a company of the saved and became a company 
seeking salvation through a priesthood which controlled the 
keys to heaven and hell. The Roman recognition of heretical 
baptism marks the arrival of the opus operatum conception 
of a sacrament. Cyprian's view of the priestly function in 
worship shows the passage from an act of commemoration 
and communion to a symbolic repetition of the sacrifice of 
Christ's death upon the cross. This is the point of history 
where the momentous power of sacerdotal authority begins 
to be felt. 

The great persecution thus fortified the church organiza- 
tion for the final pagan assault which, after a forty years 
interval of peace and prosperity, came under Diocletian (303) 
and was confessed a failure by the edict of Milan (313), which 
gave equality to Christianity and pagan cults. The church 
emerged from its long conflict with the world unified in sub- 
stance of doctrine and restrained by standards which pre- 
vented any marked aberrations, administered by ofhcers 
possessing extraordinary powers, and celebrating a ritual 
which had already assimilated the conception of salvation 
to which pagan cults aspired. 

Literature. — ^Harnack, Expansion of Christianity (New York: Put- 
nam, 1904); H. B. Workman, Persecution in the Early Church (London: 
Kelly, 1 906-11); J. A. F. Gregg, The^Decian Persecution (London: Black- 
wood & Sons, 1898); C. W. Benson, Cyprian, His Life, Times, Work 
(London: Macmillan, 1897). 

III. UNION WITH THE WORLD 

The demand for political unity. — With Constantine, sole 
ruler after 324, began the new era of Christianity with the 
state as patron. The poHtical problem of this new ruler of 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 335 

Western origin was to win the East, and his poHcy was to 
establish a universal Christian state with a new Eastern 
capital, Constantinople, free from the tenacious traditions of 
the gods of Rome. The Americafi student, accustomed to 
churches free from political connection, will have peculiar 
interest in considering what happened to Christianity by this 
union with the state. An obvious effect of the suppression 
of pagan worship, begun by the sons of Constantine, was 
the streaming into the church of masses of men who had 
not chosen it for its ethics and who broke down its serious 
discipline. It was but natural that they should also bring into 
the usag& and worship of the church beliefs and practices 
which, found in paganism, are deemed superstition. The 
church was established before society was adequately Chris- 
tian in ideals. 

The demand for official doctrinal unity. — Nor was this 
the only way in which the change to a state church obscured 
the original ethical interest. Party strife, resting largely 
upon political motives, consumed the energy of the church 
in the struggle over theological precision in the official creed 
now demanded. To use Christianity as the basis of world- 
unity Constantine needed a united church. He must over- 
come the divisions which had been created by the issues of 
discipline due to the preceding persecutions (Donatists, 
Meletians, Novationists) . A dissension still more alarming 
was developing in the East. The Adoptionists had not been 
wholly vanquished by the condemnation of Paul in Antioch 
(270), though their theological leader, Lucian, compromised 
with the dominant thought by accepting the conception of the 
Logos, not indeed as a person in deity but as a semi-deity 
intermediate between God and creation. Christ was neither 
man nor God but this Logos personality in human shape. 
This crude compromise was not in harmony with a view which 
required both full humanity and full deity in Christ. In 
pagan cults a physical redemption was sought by union with 



336 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

a god. So now the Christian circles emphasized the eternaliz- 
ing of man by an interpenetration of divine and human sub- 
stance. "As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made 
alive." The redeemer who mediated this ''deification" 
through the eucharistic sacrament must unite in his person a 
real humanity and a Logos being that by absolute oneness with 
deity could bring an unqualified eternity of divine nature into 
human possession. It was this dissension which disturbed the 
imperial policy and induced emperors to give the weight of 
their authority to one or another creedal phrase related to the 
contentions concerning the Trinity or the two natures in 
Christ. The deification of Christ for the interest of worship 
and the theory of salvation was thus completed by a process 
in which political instincts and ecclesiastical rivalries dis- 
torted and degraded the Christian ideals. The church 
seemed to lose its moral power by union with the world. The 
intellectual discussion spent itself and theology became' a 
neo-Platonic theory of the elaborate ritual worship in which 
the Christology had expressed itself. 

Some results of this political unification. — Social power 
had indeed been gained. Perfected in doctrine, in ritual, in 
administration, the church shared the state's political 
authority. The creed adopted by the majority was enforced 
by state law with penalties of outlawry and death on public 
dissent. The clergy was exempt from burdens of taxations 
and army duty. Churches were enabled to hold large 
endowments from public or private gifts. Bishops won 
judicial authority, the state accepting a bishop's decision of 
cases appealed to him from the civil courts. Power and 
opportunity thus fell to the religious establishment. What 
social tasks did it perform? It is to be feared that union 
with the world involved it in the decay which fell upon the 
world, and although some beneficent services may be recited, 
the uplift and transformation of society to the pattern of the 
Kingdom of God was a task beyond the power of the Eastern 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 337 

church. In the reform and reinvigoration of the state by the 
Isaurian emperors the church was a resistant obstacle. 

IV. THE IDEALS OF MQNASTICISM 

Why did monasticism flourish? — The failure is accentuated 
by the relative failure of Eastern monasticism. Why and 
to what end this new institution ? It sprang surely from 
vague discontent with the loss of the church's original heroic 
ideal. The earliest theory really required that the church 
should be a fellowship of saints, and when experience belied the 
theory, those who would be perfect withdrew from the churches 
where sins were too easily forgiven, if not to found Puritan 
churches of strict discipline at least to the abnormal and 
merely negative holiness of the hermit life. Especially in the 
second quarter of the fourth century, when the church made 
formal union with the world and a mass of population entered 
it from expediency, the man passionate for perfection forsook 
the church for the company of austere ascetics and seekers 
of mystical privilege in the desert. The emptiness of this 
negative life and the ineradicable principle of fellowship 
compelled the organization of these ascetics in the social 
form of monasticism where work and study were joined with 
prayer and fasting. St. Basil (360 ff.) sought to find social 
usefulness for these ideal communities by giving them the 
care of orphanages and the education of boys, but in the 
East the farm labor, the works of charity, the intellectual 
occupation, died away and only the limited life of routine 
devotions and devout contemplation remained. Even this 
refuge of strenuous souls shared in the general stagnation 
where religion became a traditional ritual form without 
ethical or social vitality. There was mysticism, but the 
emotional bliss of this mysticism wears the aspect of a sub- 
ethical type of religiosity other than that awe and enthusiasm 
for God's sovereignty of righteous purpose which Christianity 
had inherited from Israel's religious consciousness. The 



338 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

story of the East sharpens interest in the somewhat con- 
trasted career of Christianity in the West. A further evolu- 
tion, the continuous and progressive assimilation and striving 
which mark a growing organism, is to be found in the Latin 
rather than the Greek church of the mediaeval period. 

Literature. — ^Harnack, Seeberg, Fisher, as cited on p. 332; A. E, 
Burn, Introduction to the Creeds (London: Methuen, 1899); W. P. 
Du Bose, The Ecumenical Councils (New York: Scribner, 1896); H. B. 
Workman, The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal (London: Kelly, 1913). 

V. THE DEVELOPMENT AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 
GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH 

The age of Justinian. — Attention to the age of the emperor 
Justinian (527-65) reveals the distinctive form which the 
Greek church was destined to assume, a church under state 
control, a church absorbed in a ritual worship grounded in 
neo-Platonist forms of thought. In Justinian we have the 
emperor as pope. The bishops were reduced to unconditional 
submission to the imperial will, and the Codex Justinianus, 
the codification of imperial laws, became, together with the 
canons of the ecumenical councils, the law of the church. 
The Greek church came thus to be characterized by submis- 
siveness to the policy of the state and claimed no social 
mission of its own. The church ceased to be an ideal object 
of faith and meant the totality of the population uniting in 
its worship. The natural result was that with the fall of 
the Empire it fell into national divisions. 

The essentials of Eastern orthodoxy. — The policy of the 
emperor-pope was to suppress heresy, giye the sole control 
to orthodoxy, and to check new tendencies. Eastern 
orthodoxy never advanced beyond the matters settled by the 
Nicene and Chalcedonian creeds. Thought remained in 
the patristic stage without receiving that fructification 
from Pauline thought which the West obtained through 
Augustine. With the decline of thought and the lack of 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 339 

institutional program religion tended to be a contemplative 
enjoyment of the ritual which now more dramatically than 
before expressed the deification of man accomplished by 
the incarnation and resurrection of the God-man. The only 
added novelty was the literature of the pseudo-Dionysius 
Areopagita which contributed a kind of theology of the 
worship. This is essentially a Christianizing of the neo- 
Platonism of Proclus and reveals the complete final substitu- 
tion of the metaphysical idea of the Absolute for the Father 
proclaimed by the Jesus of history. The student will find 
interest in a related topic — the development of image- worship. 
This may possibly be viewed as the surging up of lower levels 
of popular religion when the higher circles ceased to think. 

Literature. — ^W. G. Holmes, The Age of Justinian and Theodora 
(London: Bell, 1905-7); W. H. Hutton, The Church of the Sixth Century 
(London: Longmans, 1897); W. F. Adeney, The Greek and Eastern 
Churches (New York: Scribner, 1909). 

VI. THE PROBLEM EOR STUDY IN THE HISTORY OF WESTERN 
CHRISTIANITY 

The meaning of religion in Western Catholicism. — ^What 
the student is to learn and comprehend is suggested by the 
situation at the end of the Middle Ages. The supreme 
question confronting a man was the question of his guilt and 
pardon. Religion seems to center in the sacrament of penance. 
A man is born subject to the king of England or of France, or 
to some German or Italian prince, but he is also born subject 
to another dominion which determines his eternal weal or woe 
by granting or withholding pardon for his sins. The national 
dominion is secular, but this spiritual dominion is not merely 
secular. Its treasury in Rome draws the wealth of the 
nations. Its agents hold marriage courts and probate courts 
and profit by the settlement of estates. Its supreme head 
claims the right to erect or depose national rulers and to 
absolve subjects, if it will, from the duty of political allegiance. 



340 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

This dread sovereign who controls so much 'of Hfe and can 
even determine the duration of the soul's discipline in purga- 
tory is not a mere chief priest. It is a prince among princes, 
sovereign of an Italian state, who wields this universal spiritual 
power and loans the sword of temporal rule to other princes. 
The state church has become a church-state. The Roman 
successor to the missionary glory that was Peter's has become 
the vicar of God on earth. 

The study of the growth of Western Catholicism. — A 
historical process produced this ecclesiastical absolutism. 
What is the story of that process ? What ideal actuated it ? 
What accounts for the social acceptance of it? What his- 
toric service was rendered by this mediaeval papal theocracy 
in the West ? The themes presented to study are the ethical 
emphasis of Western Christianity, the role of monasticism 
in the life of the West, the process by which the Bishop 
of Rome became master of church life, the origin and develop- 
ment of the ideal which the papacy sought to embody, and 
the reasons why in the end every nation was in rebellion 
against the historical result. 

Literature {general treatments of Western Catholicism). — H. H. Mil- 
man, History of Latin Christianity, 8 vols. (New York: Sheldon, 1890); 
H. B. Workman, The Church in the Middle Ages (London: Kelly, 1900); 
H. A. L. Fisher, The Mediaeval Empire, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 
1900); J. Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire (New York: Macmillan 
[many editions]); E. Emerton, Introduction to the Middle Ages (Boston: 
Ginn & Co., 1888); E. Emerton, Mediaeval Europe (Boston: Ginn & 
Co., 1896); Andre Lagarde, The Latin Church in the Middle Ages (New 
York: Scribner, 1915); Mandell Creighton, History of the Papacy from 
the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome, Vols. I- VI (New York: Longmans, 
1892). 

VII. WESTERN CHARACTERISTICS . 

How does Western Christianity differ from Eastern? — 
Turning from the stagnant East a student seeks to know what 
differentiates Western and Eastern Christianity. No differ- 
ence is found in the formulation of trinitarian and christo- 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 341 

logical doctriner The West in fact furnished the terminology 
adopted in the ecumenical creeds. The West also shows a 
similar fusion of Christianity with elements of paganism, 
Roman of Teutonic. Pagan shrines, rites, and festivals were 
Christianized in name. Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide 
had usages of pagan origin, and the saints are obviously suc- 
cessors to the pagan gods. It was in fact by this blending 
with Teutonic elements that Christianity became the religion 
of the masses. 

Great personalities in the West. — The fact of a signifi- 
cant difference may be seen in the varied and powerful moral 
personalities of Western history, whose personal energy and 
rich individuality apparently center in the strength of their 
religious consciousness. To know the mediaeval period 
one must gain intimacy with these remarkable types of human 
character: Gregory I, Hildebrand, Bernhard of Clairvaux, 
Francis of Assisi — men who enrich our conception of human 
possibility. More broadly, the whole life of the West shows 
that religion did not suppress or conventionalize diversified 
human power in men of varied talents : Charlemagne, Arnold 
of Brescia, Frederick II, Abelard, Aquinas, Dante. Is this 
related to the higher valuation in the West of Christ's human 
personality as compared with the Greek church, where Jesus 
vanished into a vague, abstract humanity, attaining person- 
ality only in the Logos, and where ritualistic or monastic mysti- 
cism rested upon a pantheistic conception ? It is in the West 
that we hear of Christ as mediator tanquam homo (Augustine), 
of the love of the human Jesus as prior to mystical ecstasy 
(Bernhard), of the apostolic life as the ideal (Arnold, Francis, 
Waldensians), of the Imitatio Christi (a Kempis), of the de- 
votions of the Stations of the Cross. The play of the religious 
consciousness as awe and self-submission to One who is holy 
through righteousness, the type of religious consciousness 
by which the Hebrew prophets reached ethical monotheism and 
Jesus found the fatherhood of love in God — this seems to 



342 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

resume its sway more distinctly in the Western development. 
The East dealt with categories of substance or nature. The 
West talked of the will, the tragedy of the divided will, the 
perfection of the will in caritas. The Western soul vibrated 
more to the ethical note. There was more homesickness 
for the morally perfect. If the Greek church developed that 
aspect of Paul's thought which is now seen to be related, in 
expression at least, to the sacramentalism of mystery-cults, 
the West began with Augustine to understand that other 
Paulinism which wrestled with the problems of guilt and 
forgiveness, of law, of merit, of justification by faith. It is 
Augustine who first makes us understand Christianity as 
"the religion of personality," and Harnack's chapter on 
Augustine as ''The Reformer of Piety" {History of Dogma, 
Vol. V) is a good basis for all sympathetic understanding of 
the best in Western religion. 

Literature. — Harnack, History of Dogma, Vol. V (Boston: Little, 
Brown, 1905); Rudolph Eucken, Die Lehensanschauungen der grossen 
Denker, 5. Aufl. (Leipzig: Veit, 1904; English translation, The Prob- 
lem of Human Life as Viewed by the Great Thinkers from Plqio to the 
Present Time [New York: Scribner, 1909]); H. B. Workman, Christian 
Thought to the Reformation (London: Kelly, 191 1). 

VIII. MONASTICISM IN THE WEST 

Organization and activities. — The monk was the religiosus. 
Monasticism was the soul of CathoHcism in the Middle Ages. 
Augustine, reformer of piety, as a priest and bishop united 
his clergy in a life according to monastic rule. Many great 
bishops of Gaul were trained in the monastic life. With 
Gregory I a monk became pope. The famous Benedictine 
rule which Gregory's missionaries carried to England and 
which English missionaries carried to Teutonic lands on the 
Continent was free from ascetic extravagance and empha- 
sized the life of the Christian spirit in an ideal brotherhood 
disciplined to prayer and manual labor and devout reading. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 343 

Incidentally rather than by intention Benedictine monasteries 
kept culture alive and so contributed to civilization in the 
centuries of darkness; but the great historic service which 
exhibited monastic religion as a social force were the missions 
which converted Teutonic peoples and disciplined them both 
by moral instruction and by a model community life of 
brotherhood and organization and work. To the chaotic 
moral dissolution of the Franks who had convents without 
influence upon the world outside came the missionary Irish 
monks of Columbanus who were preachers to the people and 
applied to lay life the moral discipline of their own penitential 
rules. To the Frisians, Hessians, Thuringians, Saxons, came 
the English missionary monks with the Benedictine rule which 
was to prevail over all others — missionaries of a moralistic 
type of religion applying again the monk's penitential canons 
and inculcating in wild natures the plain, concrete duties of 
moral life. From the ninth century the great organization of 
the Congregation of Cluny became a factor in Western civili- 
zation, impressing the severe standards of Catholic piety 
upon a secular priesthood too easily prone to the interests of 
the world, impressing upon the anarchic warring lords of 
feudalism the duty of the peace of God. The cultural work 
of Cistercians and Premonstrants marks again the social effi- 
ciency of Western piety, and with the new creations of Francis- 
can and Dominican friars there is a new creation of European 
Hfe not only in enthusiastic piety but in art, science, and 
poetry. Plato's teaching that the Good is the creative 
principle finds illustration in these cases of undesigned social 
results from devotit)n to Christian goodness. 

Influence of monasticism. — Monasticism thus intensified 
the ethical type of Christianity which was congenial to the 
practical West and helped to make the problem of sin and 
its remedy by the sacrament of penance the central interest 
in church life. But more than that it had a great ecclesiastical 
result. The monks as papal missionaries made Roman 



344 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

usage and respect for Rome dominant in England. English 
missionaries (Boniface) became papal and Romanizing agents 
in German lands and helped bring to pass that alliance of the 
Prankish monarchy and the papacy by which the Roman 
bishops won temporal as well as spiritual power. It was 
the Cluny monastery reform which found expression in the 
great papal program of Hildebrand and his successors by which 
the Church of Rome was to be in control of civilization. When 
the papacy had begun to make the program something of a 
reality, the Friars of St. Francis and St. Dominic were an 
international spiritual army for the papal cause. 

Literature. — H, B. Workman, The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal 
(London: Kelly, 1913 [with a bibliography]); Montalembert, The 
Monks of the West, 6 vols. (London: J. C. Nimmo, 1896). 

IX. THE MISSION OF THE PAPACY 

In our own generation the churches are summoned to a 
social mission: the transformation of the social order. Some- 
thing of the early messianic enthusiasm comes back to the 
Christian soul. It was the illusion of Lammenais that the 
papacy could act as the instrument of this modern social 
transformation. It was despair of any other solution that 
carried Orestes Brownson into the Catholic church. The 
pressure of this contemporary ardor will kindle the student's 
interest in the story of the mediaeval papacy. It will give 
him a point of view by which to appreciate its historic mission. 
From this great historic experiment also he may learn some- 
thing of the peril which political power brought to religion. 

The ideal of papal policy. — What the student wishes to 
comprehend is the historical process by which the amazing 
claims of the bull Unam Sanctam, issued by Boniface VIII 
in 1302, came to be possible. According to that bull the 
church possesses both the spiritual and political authority 
over mankind. Kings and soldiers wield the sword of political 
authority by the will and sufferance of the pope. The 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 345 

spiritual power, the papacy, establishes the earthly power 
and sits in judgment upon the use made of it. It is necessary 
to salvation for every human being to be subject to the 
Roman pontiff. When the student begins the story of the 
development of the Roman primacy he finds an explanation 
in many historic relativities cleverly used by bishops who 
inherited the Roman instinct and tradition for rule. At a 
later time he finds a mass of fraudulent documents used to 
support a claim of ecclesiastical jurisdiction for the Roman 
bishop over the churches of the West. He discovers that 
the general ignorance of actual history, the absence of any 
critical sense even among the intelligent, and the blind cred- 
ulity of the masses furnish conditions for the rise of the 
absolute papal monarchy. He has a partial explanation 
of that power to which emperors like Henry IV, Frederick 
Barbarossa, and Frederick II humbled themselves. But he 
also detects that this marvelous papal development had its 
origin in an ideal conception and that those who fostered it 
were actuated by the aim of Christianizing a social order full 
of injustice, strife, and corruption. 

The papal ideal and the Kingdom of God. — This ideal 
conception has some relation to the primitive Christian ex- 
pectation of the reign of Christ on earth, but it was formed 
when the decay of the Roman Empire compelled reflection 
upon the course of history. Alaric's sack of Rome in 410 was 
a shock to Christian as well as pagan. Why was Rome, that 
had been strong when pagan, doomed to perish in Christian 
times? Wrestling with this problem of history, Augustine 
wrote his City of God with the argument that what was hap- 
pening was the supplanting of a dominion founded on self- 
love by a dominion founded on love of God, a kingdom of 
force yielding to the church of Christ as the earthly anticipa- 
tion of the eternal Kingdom of God. With the irruption of 
wild Teutonic hordes into the Empire and the part played by 
th^ church in civilizing and moralizing these barbarians, with 



346 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

the ever-present dualism of barbarians' conquests by power 
and the church's assertion of spiritual dominance, Augustine's 
conception became more and more real as an interpretation of 
history. If, however, the church was a kingdom, it must be 
more than a preaching voice; it must be able to enforce obedi- 
ence to its higher will. 

Church and state.— How should this authority come to 
the spiritual power? The mediaeval empire began with 
Charlemagne, who had pondered on Augustine's Civitatis Dei 
and conceived his power in theocratic form. His empire was 
a church-state ruled by a priestly emperor. Subjects owed 
both political and religious duties to his theocratic will. He 
was head both of state and church. But the conditions of 
history gave no permanence to this ideal. The imperial 
successors of Charlemagne did not inherit it nor were they 
qualified to give it effect. The church must exercise authority 
over them in order that the Kingdom of God might have 
earthly expression. In whose hands then should the authority 
lie? The first natural answer would be: In the hands of 
the bishops. But the bishops themselves were more and 
more dependent on the world, on the very civitas terrena 
that needed restraint and guidance. Bishops were appointed 
by the state. They were a part of the political system. They 
were members of a military aristocracy involved in the 
world's quest of riches and power. He who reached the 
dignity of archbishop was likely to show himself an auto- 
cratic prince, and it is significant that just when the royal 
power was too weak to restrain such ecclesiastical princes 
subordinate bishops in Gaul, about 850 a.d., forged a series 
of documents providing for papal supremacy over the hier- 
archy and for the right of appeal to the pope in the case of 
bishops oppressed by their metropolitan (the forged decretals). 
This spurious canon law was quietly made use of by Pope 
Nicholas I. He began that series of claims to absolute 
sovereignty which culminated in the bull of Boniface VIII, 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 347 

already mentioned. This spurious canon law, which was 
accepted in an age without historic sense, was appealed to by 
those who were associated with the movement for reform 
championed by the Congregation of Cluny. The great 
career of Hildebrand in the eleventh century is the career of 
such a social reformer aiming above all to make bishops 
dependent on a reformed papacy rather than on a secular 
ruler who seldom was actuated by the principles of Christian 
ethics. The test question thus became the investiture or 
form of installation of a bishop in his ofhce. 

The place of the church in a feudal system.— To com- 
prehend the historical situation in its moral aspects the 
student needs to know the workings of feudalism — the social 
system of the time — not merely learning its general character 
and origins but studying it as it was seen in its actual opera- 
tion by the pious monks who wrote chronicles. Such a 
chronicler. Richer, in the tenth century describes the time 
when might made right: ''To plunder other men's possessions 
is every man's supreme aim. It is a bad management of 
one's business not to add to one's own inheritance that of 
others. Hence in place of concord universal discord. Hence 
pillage, burnings, usurpations, violence." So also the eleventh 
and the twelfth centuries are full of complaints of oppression 
of the weak, the misery of the serfs, the plundering of churches. 
The ''world" of that time seen in such contrast to the church 
was the expression of greed, cruelty, and lust. It had not 
yet been interpenetrated by ideals that could make it sover- 
eign over the deeper elements in human nature. The ideals 
that had sacred restraint on the soul belonged to the church. 
The motives actuating Gregory VII in his great battle for 
papal supremacy rise from this social situation. In his letters 
he laments over the corruption of the world where princes 
sacrifice righteousness to worldly advantage, and the cor- 
ruption of the church where bishops obtain ofhce by purchase 
or bargain and live worldly and immoral lives. We understand 



348 GUIDE TO, STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

thus why he fought to prevent patronage of the church from 
being the spoil and merchandise of men of the world. 
The social situation explains the rise and acceptance of the 
ideal of papal theocracy and gives intense interest to the long 
battle of pope and emperor. Social peace, social order, 
social justice were at stake, the Christianizing of the social 
system. A grandiose idealism actuated the best of the 
popes, and it is intelligible that the great theologians of the 
scholastic period supported the most exorbitant of papal 
claims and that the pope's supremacy over life became 
grounded in the common mind. Intelligible, too, is the great 
codification of canon law by which the church originating in 
the simple brotherhood of lovers of Jesus became a juris- 
prudential institution requiring the service of skilled church 
lawyers. This extensive addition of the papal decretals to 
the old canons of councils not only emphasized the sub- 
ordination of the church to the pope and began the systems 
under which the pope possessed the right of absolutions and 
dispensations, but also tended to efface the distinction between 
a church of worship and a system of law. By the fourteenth 
century all functions of the church were treated in the spirit 
of juristic science, even the doctrines in which the Christian 
faith and worship were expressed. Luther, when he came, 
emancipated religion as the soul's experience from this false 
constraint of jurisprudence. Luther marked his revolt by 
burning the canon law. 

Literature. — ^W. Barry, The Papal Monarchy from St. Gregory the 
Great to Boniface VIII (New York: Putnam, 1902); A. F. Villemain, 
Life of Gregory VII, 2 vols. (London: Bendey, 1874) ; A. H. Mathew, Life 
and Times of Hildebrand (London: Griffiths, 1910); D. J. Medley, The 
Church and the Empire (New York: Macmillan, 1910). 

X. MEDIAEVAL THEOLOGY 

Relation to the life of the age. — The expression of the 
soul's experience in conceptions borrowed from the legal 
system of the feudal times is illustrated in the case of 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 349 

the famous doctrine which the first scholastic theologian, 
Anselm, contributed. His doctrine of the atonement is an 
effort to rationalize dogma, to show that the church doctrine 
agrees with reason. The dogma is that God became man. 
Why a God-man ? Because only such a being could satisfy 
the Suzerain of the Universe for the infinite wrong done to his 
honor. The argument is rational only as it uses notions cus- 
tomary in Germanic law. It seems not the proper form of 
thought for what Jesus proclaimed (Luke, chap. 15) of the joy 
in heaven over the sinner that repents. The illustration 
shows us how contingent and relative to mediaeval time and 
place were' the conceptions of scholastic theology. Neverthe- 
less, this chapter in the history of doctrine is of immense inter- 
est and profit to the student of religion.' With the student 
of the history of philosophy he shares the edification afforded 
by this powerful development of intellectual energy in dis- 
cussing the rational form of the teachings and practices of the 
church. The culmination of this mediaeval thought is found 
in Aquinas, who sought to bring into the imity of one har- 
monious system all that natural reason knows and all that 
has been supernaturally revealed to the church. The system 
is of sociological interest since it is the scientific expression 
of the universal state which the theocratic papacy attempted 
to make real. The disruption of the scholastic move- 
ment through the Franciscan attack on this Dominican 
rationahsm illustrates a conflict of theological method 
which still divides men. For the student of religion there 
is a special necessity. He needs to comprehend how Martin 
Luther was so revolutionary in effect, if not in intention. 
He needs to understand how Luther regained the primi- 
tive Christian apprehension of religion as the soul's experi- 
ence of God as Father; how, emancipating ''grace" and 
''faith" from their official expression in mediaeval forms, 
he emancipated personal lay religion from sacerdotal 
tyranny. The prerogative over the laity which the medi- 



350 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

aeval theory assigned to the priests and to the pope is 
expressed in the priest's control of sacraments which were 
the only means of divine action on men, the only channels 
of divine grace into human life. It was in these sacra- 
ments, indispensable for salvation, that the jurisdiction of the 
hierarchic church was brought home to every man in every 
social grade and made a reality to his personal emotional 
life. The chief dogma of the scholastic period, the central 
interest of its theology, was the dogma of the sacraments. 
One must understand the scholastic attempt to rationalize 
or justify the sacramental systems which had grown up 
through historical processes in order to see the place of 
Luther in history, in order to understand his terminology, 
in order to see how and why the Christian current of energy 
finds its farther evolutionary expression in a Protestantism 
that broke away from the Roman dominion. 

XI. THE DECLINE OF THE PAPACY 

The rise of national loyalties. — The end of the mediaeval 
period is indeed full of signs that the world would break 
away from the Roman dominion, and the student's task is not 
only to learn the story which leads to the crisis and catastrophe 
of the sixteenth century but to understand how and why life 
released itself from the control of the institution which it had 
created. Reaching its height of domination in the thirteenth 
century and reducing the imperial authority to a decorative 
title, the papal domination was itself shattered in the following 
century by collision with the new national organizations in 
France and England and Spain. These, unlike the imperial 
system, were social unities grounded in common blood and 
common speech and the loyalties sustained by economic 
interests, traditions, and ideals of organized neighborhood 
life. The papacy, reduced in political power, still profited 
by the spoils of its victory, and, by exploiting the wealth of 
the nations without any longer serving an adequate social 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 351 

purpose, became more and more the object of attack. The 
scandal of papal administration led to the reforming councils 
where the papacy was disciplined by the episcopate or by 
bishops acting for the expressions of separate national inter- 
ests. This remarkable reaction does not mean that Europe 
was falling away from religion but that religion had already 
fallen away in some degree from the papacy. 

The development of lay religion. — This begins to show 
itself even before Innocent III exhibited the splendor of papal 
supremacy in the Lateran Council of 12 15. The student 
finds that the religious consciousness of the people— the 
creative source of all new movements — had already turned 
away from the sacerdotalism which reigned by power to 
simpler concerted forms of lay religion fed by a knowledge 
of the Christian beginnings when Jesus walked in Galilee 
with disciples who had renounced house and home to preach 
repentance. The succession of these earnest, simple lay 
movements of an evangelical type is instructive as showing 
that the dynamic current of religion had met an obstacle 
in the hierarchic institution and was finding new outlet and 
expression in the life of the common people. There were 
being generated anti-papal, anti-sacerdotal currents which 
would contribute popular support to the Reformation that 
came. 

Mysticism. — ^Another reaction, also religious, is of similar 
significance to the historian. Monasticism, serving the papal 
monarchy and sharing in its affluence, was losing vitality, but 
in Germany and the Low Countries Dominican monks and 
circles allied to them were using the intellectual form of 
scholastic philosophy for the gratification not of logical inter- 
est but of religious emotion. The mysticism of Eckhart, 
Tauler, Suso, and of the Theologia Germanica meant — • 
whatever be the complication with philosophical theory — an 
invigoration of the religious consciousness and the con- 
centration of it on the problem of winning a heart of that 



352 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

unselfish love which Jesus preached and Paul sang. Here 
again is non-sacerdotal lay religiosity achieving salvation 
through the soul's own surrender of itself to the unpurchased 
grace of God. The simpler expressions of this northern 
mysticism helped to clarify Luther's own understanding of 
religion as a personal experience — no longer mystical in 
theory — which, as accomplished by the sole mediation of 
Christ's revelation of divine love to the repentant soul, 
emancipated man from the Babylonian captivity to sacra- 
ments and priests. 

The revival of classic culture. — There is finally the emanci- 
pation of culture from the mediaeval scholastic form. This 
is not a religious movement. It was the discovery in the 
rich literature and art and philosophy of antiquity of a new 
content of life, a new spiritual substance, more gratifying 
than the arid formalism of mediaeval scholasticism, and 
stimulating to revolt against the mediaeval asceticism, even 
involving much skepticism of Christian convictions. The 
papacy, robbed of power but opulent for the support of 
scholarship and art, made itself the patron of the new culture, 
incongruous as this might be, with all that the papacy had 
established as Christian. The scholars, the poets, the 
artists of Italy might loyally support and embellish the 
papacy which gave them station and pension, and yet be 
skeptical or indifferent to worship and doctrine; but when 
Englishmen and Germans and Netherlanders appropriated 
this new culture, they fused it with the spirit of Christian 
ethics, applied it to the study of the Bible, and, as Bible 
Christians, began to talk religion in the terms of the Gospels 
and of Paul's Epistles, contributing in their turn to the 
anti-papal, non-sacerdotal movement of society. The union 
of this Humanism with the devotion of the northern 
mystics, the extension of this now devoutly religious new 
culture to popular circles in the North by the Brothers of the 
Common Life, means again a permeation of German society 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 353 

with a spirit which welcomed and fostered the Lutheran 
Reformation. Those who were not of this mystical devout- 
ness, those who were of the type of Erasmus, were at least 
biblicists freed from the scholastic trammels and in practical 
ethical protest against the religion of priestly sacraments. 
These too were alHes, if only temporary allies, for Luther's 
protest against the papal system. 

Through evangelical sects, through national conflicts with 
Roman exactions, through the emancipation of the individual 
by mysticism or by Humanist culture or by a blending of both 
the northern part of Europe was preparing for that crisis which 
arrived in 15 17. 

XII. SUGGESTIONS TO STUDENTS 

Knowledge of this long story is knowledge of a supremely 
interesting drama where the better and the worse wrestle for 
human lives, a pageant of great men in romantic picturesque 
days, a process of evolution where we may have glimpses to 
confirm our faith in a Providence shaping our ends, rough- 
hew them as we will. The knowledge may yield the fruit of 
wisdom which can rightly judge and interpret men's ideals 
and methods and the institutions which their strivings have 
built. Such wisdom is wealth for those who in the ministry 
of religion persuade men to live by the vision of the Kingdom 
of God. 

The first duty is to know the story. To acquire and 
retain the facts which enter into so complex a story a proper 
method is required. At the outset we should obtain a rapid 
outline survey of the whole and then study the subject in 
more intensive detail. The outline may be found in such 
brief helps as the following: 

J. W. Moncrief , A Short History of the Christian Church (Chicago : 
Revell, 1902); Zenos, Compendium of Church History (Philadelphia: 
Presbyterian Board, 1900) ; Sohm, Kirchengeschichte im Grundriss (Leip- 
zig: Ungleich, 1893; English translation, Outlines of Church History 



354 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

[New York: Macmillan, 1895]); Gustav Krueger, Das Papstum; seine 
Idee und ihre Trdger (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1907; English translation, 
The Papacy: The Idea and Its Exponents [New York: Putnam, 1909]). 

It is also advisable to study the table of contents of the 
larger methodic treatises in order to acquire at the beginning 
a clear conception of the proper order and distribution of 
topics. The only profitable, the only scientific, knowledge is 
knowledge of facts in their systematic relations, and the effort 
so to construct, as we learn and after we have learned, helps 
to sustain our own mental activity and rescues us from the 
danger of being mere passive readers. We need not fear that 
the construction borrowed from treatises may be false, since 
the whole period has been thoroughly worked by an army of 
scientific investigators and has been so long discussed that 
the main structure of this knowledge is well established. 

In order td^enjoy the fullest independent activity of mind 
the student should conceive himself as making his own 
textbook. If following a descriptive course in a uni- 
versity or a theological school, he should keep ample margins 
or a blank page in his notebook for the insertion of material 
borrowed from collateral reading. If pursuing the study by 
himself, he may profitably construct his own condensed out- 
line by the aid of more than one treatise and a sufficient 
amount of source material, and he should select a number of 
topics for essays which may embody a fuller knowledge 
and his own interpretation of the significance and interest 
of the facts. 

Excellent selections from sources are found in the following: H. M. 
Gwatkin, Selections from Early Christian Writers (New York: Mac- 
mUlan, 1893). (This has texts and translations.) J. C. Ayer, A 
Source Book for Ancient Church History (New York: Scribner, 1913). 
(The most complete and accurate collection of translated passages indis- 
pensable for exact knowledge.) Mirbt, Quellen zur Geschichte des Papst- 
ums (Leipzig: Mohr, 1901). (Latin texts illustrating papal history.) 
J. H. Robinson, Readings in European History, Vol. I (Boston: Ginn, 
1904). (Good bibliographies and informing descriptions of sources.) 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 355 

E. F. Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages (New 
York: Macmillan, 1892). 

The best systematic expositions in English covering the whole period 
are the following: A. H. Newman, Manual of Church History, Vol. I 
(Philadelphia: Baptist Pub. Soc, 1900). (The best brief treatment. 
It has good bibliographies.) Moeller, Lehrhuch der Kirchengeschichte, 
Bd. II (Freiburg: Mohr, 1893; English translation. History of the 
Christian Church, Vols. I and II [New York: Macmillan, 1892 &.]). 
(A model of scholarship.) Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 
Vols. I-IV (New York: Scribner, 1891 ff.). (This full narration, enriched 
with material of concrete interest, is completed by David Schaff, The 
Middle Ages, Vol. V [New York: Scribner, 19 10]). 



VII. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 

By GEORGE CROSS 

Professor of Systematic Theology in Rochester Theological Seminary 



ANALYSIS 

I. General Considerations. — i. Personal influence — 2, Social in- 
fluences and economic changes. — 3. Political developments. — 

4. Intellectual advance and unrest. — 5. Moral and religious growth . 359-362 

II. The Course of the Reformation 362-363 

III. The Lutheran Reformation. — A. The Lutheran Reformation 
in Germanic countries. — i. The establishment of Lutheranism in 
Germany. — 2. Stages of the Lutheran movement. — 3. Significance 
of the Lutheran Reformation. — B. The Lutheran Reformation in 
other countries. — i. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. — 2. England, 
Scotland, and Holland. — 3. In several countries that ultimately 
remained Catholic. — C. The Lutheran theology. — D. Estimate of 
Lutheranism 363-379 

IV. The Origin and Establishment of the Reformed Churches . — 
The Zwinglian reformation. — The Calvinist reformation. — A. Cal- 
vinism in Geneva. — Founding of the first Protestant theocracy. — 
B. The Calvinist reformation in Scotland. — Founding of Scottish 
Presbyterianism. — ^John Knox. — C. The Calvinist reformation in the 
Netherlands. — D. The Calvinist reformation in other lands. — i. France. 

— 2. Germany. — 3. Switzerland. — 4. England. — D. Retrospect . . 379-391 

V. The Reformation in England. — ^The forces and conditions 
operative. — The actual establishment of the English church. — The 
work of the Reformation under Edward VI. — The accession of 
Elizabeth 392-396 

VI. The Anabaptist Reformation. — i. The affiliations of the 
Anabaptist movement. — 2. Directions of development. — 3. The prin- 
cipal tenets of the Anabaptists. — 4. The propagation and outcome. — 

5. The relation of Anabaptism to the Baptist, Armenian, and 
Quaker movements of the later Protestant period .... 396-404 

VII. The Beginning of the Disintegration of the Protestant Systems. 
— Some pertinent questions. — Controversies between Dissenters and 
Churchmen. — A. The efect of the Counter-Reformation on the course of 
Protestantism. — The reason for the Counter-Reformation. — The 
Society of Jesus and its influence. — The inner nature of Jesuitism. — 
Propaganda. — The Council of Trent. — B. Undermining of Protestant 
orthodoxy by intellectualism. — i. Rationalistic criticism. — 2. Skeptical 
reaction caused by doctrinal controversies among the orthodox. — 
a) Controversies among Lutherans. — b) Controversies between 
Lutherans and Calvinists. — c) Controversies among Calvinists in 
the Netherlands. — d) Calvinistic controversies in England. — 3. The 
discrediting of orthodoxy through the progress of scientific knowl- 
edge. — C. Threatened dissolution of the Protestant state churches 
through the rise of the Free churches. — i. Growth of the Free-church 
ideal in England. — 2. Presbyterianism. — 3. The Independents. — 
4. The Baptists. — C. Summary estimate of the Protestant Refor- 
mation 404-427 



VII. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 

I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 

The Protestant Reformation was a general upheaval in 
the Hfe of the peoples of Western Europe by which that life 
was partially reconstructed on a different basis and the way 
prepared for a transit' on from the mediaeval to the modern 
order of society. Like all great revolutions, it was a cata- 
clysmic outcome of the joint working of many forces through 
long periods preceding it, A thorough study of the Reforma- 
tion should therefore begin with an examination of those 
influences. Though they were complicated and interwoven, 
for purposes of examination they may be distinguished as 
personal, social, economic, political, intellectual, moral, and 
religious. 

Literature. — ^A good review of the situations leading to the Reforma- 
tion may be found in G. B. Adams, Civilization during the Middle Ages 
(New York: Scribner, 1900). 

1. Personal influences. — Pre-eminent among many great 
names are those of John Wy cliff e, the English reformer of 
the fourteenth century, and his followers, John Huss of 
Bohemia and Jerome of Prague, fellow- workers and -martyrs. 
The work of these men had a profound effect on the social 
and political life of England and Central Europe. 

Literature. — For these movements the following works may be 
consulted: G. V. Lechler, John Wiclif and His English Precursors, 
translated, and the sources mentioned there (London: Kegan Paul, 
1878); J. Loserth, Wiclif and Hus, translation (London: Hodder & 
Stoughton Co., 1884) ; von Liitzow, The Life and Times of Master John 
Hus (New York: E. P. Button & Co., 1909). 

2. Socialinfiuences and economic changes. — These should 
be studied close together: the effects of the Crusades on 

359 



360 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

trade and commerce, the growth of cities and city govern- 
ment, the formation of trading guilds and secret societies, 
the breakdown of feudaHsm, the decrease of serfdom, the 
ambitions of the peasantry, the appearance of the free wage- 
earner, the spirit of enterprise, invention, the increase and 
centraKzation of wealth, the minglings of the people through 
travel, the dissemination of knowledge among the common 
people by means of the printing-press, the growing democratic 
feeling, the Black Death, and millenarianism. The subject 
cannot at present be studied thoroughly under any one author, 
though many writers of repute have referred to these con- 
ditions at some length, but mainly with reference to conditions 
in Germany. 

Literature. — ^Among the works to be consulted are: G. W. Cox, 
The Crusades (New York: Scribner, 1874); J. M. Ludlow, Age of the 
Crusades (New York: Scribner. 1900); B. Bax, German Society at the 
Close of the Middle Ages (London: Sonnenschein, 1894); W. Vogt, 
Die Vorgeschichte des Bauernkrieges (Halle: Niemeyer, 1887); Cam- 
bridge Modern History, I, i, iv; Munroe, Diehl and Prutz, Essays on 
the Crusades, (New York: "Jax Duffield & Co., 1903). 

3. Political developments. — Here one should study the new 
groupings - and differentiation of the peoples after the Empire 
of Charlemagne; the new centers of power with the decline 
of feudalism; the community of race, language, sentiment, 
and geographical boundaries, favoring the establishment of 
new nations with kings at their head; the opposition to the 
claims of the German imperial authorities and the Catholic 
church; the movements toward the national control of the 
territorial churches. The national ambitions of the English, 
French, and Spanish achieved success, while the national 
spirit of parts of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and 
Scandinavia pressed for recognition in vain for the time. The 
disintegration of the Empire and of the church alHed with 
it was threatened. 

Literature. — For a view of the political situation one may consult the 
Cambridge Modern History; R. Lodge, The Close of the Middle Ages (New 
York: MacmiUan, 1901). 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 361 

4. Intellectual advance and unrest. — The conditions 
referred to above were necessarily accompanied by the out- 
burst of new ideas and of a spirit of revolt against traditional 
science, philosophy, and religious beliefs in general. We are 
to observe the intellectual ferment that followed the Crusades 
as the life of East and West contended and mingled. Arabian 
and Aristotelian philosophy, Greek literature in general, 
Roman law, the recovery 'of a knowledge of the Scriptures 
and their translation into the vernacular of the peoples 
created a new mental atmosphere. Modern science was born 
with Roger Bacon. Universities were founded and swarmed 
with students — not all of them by any means for the priest- 
hood. Leadership was being transferred from the priests to 
the laity, asceticism was being discounted, skepticism was 
extending to the church's dogmas, knowledge of truth was 
coming to be esteemed above the possession of sacraments. 

Literature. — The vast literature bearing on the Renaissance and 
Humanism is available for this study. See Symonds, The Renaissance 
in Italy (London: Smith & Elder, 1875-80); Hallam, Introduction to 
the Literature of Europe (London: Murray, i860); J. Burckhardt, The 
Civilization of the Period of the Renaissance, translation (London: Sonnen- 
schein, 1890); histories of European universities; the works of Erasmus, 
More's Utopia and Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum are illustrative of the 
spirit of the Renaissance and Humanism. 

5. Moral and religious growth. — The new age mani- 
fested its character pre-eminently in a protest against the 
conventional moral standards and practices and religious 
beliefs. All the other currents of opposition to the ancient 
or mediaeval institutions found their focus in the moral- 
religious revolt that was constantly growing in force. The 
church's own training of the conscience of the individual 
aroused many to a sense of abhorrence of its practice of 
compounding moral felonies and of its paganism. The shock 
of Mohammedanism is to be taken account of here. More 
important is the persistence of the earlier dissent that the 
Inquisition had failed to uproot. Men were finding it possible 



362 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

to live the higher life without the priest or the church. Faith 
and pure goodness were displacing trust in ecclesiastical 
works. 

Literature. — ^Among the works to be consulted on this subject are: 
Harnack, History oj Dogma, Vols. VI and VII (Boston: Little, Brown & 
Co., 1899); A. H. Newman, History of Antipaedohaptism (Philadelphia: 
American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1898); Janssen, Geschichte des deutschen 
Volkes seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters, Vol. I (Freiburg: Herder, 1897). 

II. THE COURSE OF THE REFORMATION 

It is open to the student to trace the disruption along 
various lines, the most inviting being the line of racial and 
national divisions or the line of religious and doctrinal cleavage. 
If we follow the former, the Catholic church can be seen 
withstanding the shock most successfully in the lands where 
the ancient Roman Empire had been most firmly established — 
as parts of Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France — and the 
Reformation meeting its greatest success in lands where the 
Roman influence was more remotely felt, as portions of 
Germany, Holland, Britain, Scandinavia, Denmark. In so 
doing the other line of cleavage will also be met, and in 
following it the different new types of faith and of the ecclesi- 
astical order will appear, as Lutheran, Zwinglian, Calvinist, 
Anabaptist. It will be observed how at one time the political 
and at another time the more distinctively religious influence 
is dominant, and how again a number of influences mingje 
indistinguishably. The theological student will preferably 
follow the second line of division. 

The period of time has no strict boundaries, but it may 
conveniently be divided into two parts, the first extending 
from the time when the various forms of opposition to the 
Catholic church found a focus in the national life of several 
European peoples to the establishment of national churches 
(say, from 15 17 a.d. to 157 1 a.d.), and the second extending 
from the vigorous beginnings of dissent within the new estab- 
lishments to the overthrow of Charles I of England and the 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 363 

Peace of Westphalia in Germany (say, from 157 1 to 1648), 
when dissent and the power of the demand for Hberty of con- 
science had got beyond control. 

Literature. — ^Among the many works which treat the whole subject 
the following may be especially mentioned: F. Seebohm, The Era of the 
Protestant Reformation (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1893); 
Ranke, History of the Reformation in Germany (translation, 1905), 
A. H. Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, 14^4-1^98 (New York: 
Macmillan, 1900), presents the chief events of the century from the 
political point of view mainly; W. Stubbs, Lectures on European History 
(London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1904), also reviews the whole period 
with his accustomed skill; W. Walker, The Reformation (New York: 
Scribner, 1900), attempts the history of the entire movement in a handy, 
small volume; the Hibbert Lectures of 1883 by C. Beard, The Reformation 
of the Sixteenth Century in Its Relation to Modern Thought (London: 
Williams & Norgate, 1883), reviews the progress of strife in the field 
of thought during this period; Hausser, The Period of the Reforma- 
tion, 2 vols., translation (London, Strahan, 1873), describes the po- 
litical struggles of the time from the German point of view; T. M. 
Lindsay, History of the Reformation, 2 vols. (New York: Scribner, 1906 
and 1907), is the most satisfactory work in English on the whole move- 
ment and is indispensable to the present-day student. 

Earlier works on the subject and some modern works are written too 
much in the controversial interest. It is necessary that the student 
should cease to feel under any obligation to idealize the Reformation. 
He should seek to find out just what happened and what it signified at 
the time and for the present, if he is to obtain an unbiased view. The 
documentary material should be consulted as far as possible. Much 
of it is still untranslated. The collection of Documents Illustrative of the 
Continental Reformation by B. J. Kidd (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 191 1) 
partly meets this need, though, unfortunately for the unskilled reader, 
the documents appear mostly in the original. For a valuable list of 
references and documents see Gieseler, Lehrbuch der neuen Kirchen- 
geschichte (Bonn: Marcus, 1853; English translation. Compendium of 
Ecclesiastical History, I, 211 ff. [London: Hamilton, 1846-55]). 

III. THE LUTHERAN REFORMATION 

The movement that bears the name of Luther has two main 
characteristics : it bears the stamp of the personality of Martin 
Luther, and its formal acceptance was substantially confined 



364 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

to the Germanic peoples — Germany, Denmark, and Scandi- 
navia. However, other peoples were profoundly affected by 
Luther's work, though its thoroughly Germanic character 
prescribed for it inevitable limitations. The natural divisions 
into which the study of the movement falls are herewith 
given : Lutheranism in Germanic countries and Lutheranism 
in non- Germanic countries. 

A. THE LUTHERAN REFORMATION IN GERMANIC COUNTRIES 

The study of the establishment of Lutheranism as a state 
religion should begin with Germany proper. 

I. The establishment of Lutheranism in Germany. — 

Three preliminary studies are essential to an understanding of 
the trend and final character of the movement, namely, the 
German imperial political system at the beginning of the 
sixteenth century, the personal character and experiences of 
the man Martin Luther, and the policy of the papacy at the 
time. 

a) The imperial political system. — James Bryce in The 
Holy Roman Empire has given the best compact account of 
the development of this famous conception of government and 
of the way the theory worked. The following features deserve 
special consideration: the axiom that the Empire was the 
counterpart, ally, and support of the Holy Catholic church; 
though England, Scotland, France, Spain, Denmark, and 
Sweden were nominally part of it, they were independent 
kingdoms and the Empire was really German; the imperial 
Diet that constituted the government, with an emperor at its 
head, was composed of three somewhat discordant elements, 
namely, seven electors (later eight) , who chose the emperor, and 
a higher and a lower nobility, both lay and ecclesiastical; each 
constituent state, down to the smallest, enjoyed the right to 
make war on its own account — hence the powerful tendency 
toward disintegration. The manner in which these conditions 
affected the course and ultimate character of the German 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 365 

Reformation is significant. The peculiar relations of the 
imperial house at the outbreak of the Reformation are to be 
noticed: the Hapsburgs, their marriages and alliances with 
the houses of Spain and Burgundy and, indirectly, with that 
of England; the jealousy of the power of Emperor Charles V 
(King Charles I of Spain) on the part of the Pope, the kings 
of France and England, and many of the imperial princes, 
and their willingness to use the religious movement for political 
purposes; the offense which Spanish dominance gave to the 
rising spirit of German nationalism. Thus the break-up of 
the Empire and the break-up of the church went together. 

b) The man Luther. — Since his personality dominated the 
religious side of the Reformation in Germany, the explanation 
of the movement lies partly in him — the son of Saxon peasants, 
possessing their character, and, on the other hand, his strong 
individualism and self-assertion. His early career at school, 
susceptibility to the appeals of mysticism rather than to the 
influence of Humanism, and the religious terror that drove him 
to the monastery largely account for his interpretation of 
Christianity. The personal influence of Staupitz, vicar- 
general of the Angus tinian order of monks, and the assurance 
of faith that sprang up in this connection are valuable clues. 
His life as priest and his professorial relations with the new 
Saxon University of Wittenberg brought him into contact with 
the demoralizing work of the sale of indulgences and into 
conflict with the papacy. 

Literature. — For one who would gain a first-hand acquaintance with 
Luther his collected works should be studied (Erlangen and Weimar 
editions in the German) ; also his letters, Brief e, s-vol. ed. by De Wette 
(Berlin: Reimer, 1825-28). The Lutherans in All Lands Company 
has published a number of volumes of his works translated into English 
by Lenker. Lives of Luther are numerous. The following may be 
consulted: Kostlin, 3d ed. (Elberfeld: Friederichs, 1883; English trans- 
lation, Lutheran Pub. Soc, 1898); Froude (London: Longmans, Green, 
& Co., 1894); McGiffert (New York: Century Co., 1911); Preserved 
Smith (Boston; Houghton Mifflin Co., 1911); Grisar, from the Jesuit 



366 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

point of view (Freiburg: Herder, 191 1; English translation, London: 
Kegan Paul & Routledge, 19 13). 

c) The policy of the papacy.— Three of its features claim 
chief attention: the political ambitions and alliances of the 
popes immediately preceding the outbreak and the manner 
in which these tied the hands of the papacy in the ensuing 
struggle; the extravagances and debts of Pope Leo X and the 
necessity of augmenting the revenues of the papal see by 
extraordinary means on account of the jealousy of the states 
of Europe and their parsimoniousness toward the papal 
church; and the development of the whole penitential system 
of the church, especially the confessional and indulgence. 

Literature. — ^For the last-mentioned, Lea, History of Auricular Con- 
fession and Indulgences (Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1896), is indis- 
pensable. For the other subjects the general history of Europe and the 
history of the papacy should be reviewed. 

2. Stages of the Lutheran movement. — For convenience 
the Lutheran Reformation up to the establishment of the Lu- 
theran church in Germany may be divided into three stages: 
first, from Luther's first emergence in public opposition to 
the sale of indulgences in Germany to his appearance before 
the Diet at Worms, when his protest became a matter of 
imperial politics; secondly, from the Diet of Worms to the 
organization of a Lutheran party, known as Protestants, in 
the Imperial Diet; thirdly, from the formation of this Protes- 
tant party to the legal establishment of the new state church 
when the Empire was split in two along ecclesiastical lines. 
The great dates are 1517, 1529, 1555, marking the publication 
of the famous Ninety-five Theses, the open organization of a 
Lutheran party in the Diet, and the establishment of the 
new church within the Empire. 

a) The public controversies. — The first stage is characterized 
by public controversies over the questions raised by Luther 
and by the general European excitement roused by them. 
The great documents of the period should be studied, espe- 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 367 

daily Luther's Ninety-five Theses and the trio that followed, 
The Liberty of a Christian Man, To the Christian Nobility of 
the German Nation, and On the Babylonian Captivity of the 
Church. The papal attempts to suppress Luther through 
Cajetan, Eck, and Miltitz and the Disputation at Leipzig, and 
the course of the proceedings at the Diet, indicate the depth 
and breadth of the influence exerted by Luther at the time. 
Luther's Primary Works (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 
1896), edited by Wace and Buckheim in an English trans- 
lation, contains these documents. The influence of such 
Humanist scholars as Erasmus and Melanchthon in sup- 
port of Luther is to be noted. 

b) The ban against Luther. — 'The second stage commences 
with the pronouncement of the ban of the Empire against 
Luther. Then follows the accession of the support of the Elec- 
tor Frederick of Saxony and his protection of Luther at the 
Wartburg, the continuation of the controversy by Luther in 
the literary works produced by him while there, the attempt 
of Pope Hadrian VI, through the institution of certain reforms, 
to forestall the rising demands for a renovation of the church, 
the failure of the Diet of Nuremberg to enforce the ban of the 
Empire against Luther, and the clear split in the Diet of 
Speyerin 1524 into two German parties, Austria and Bavaria 
leading a Catholic federation, while the Elector of Saxony, the 
Landgrave of Hesse, and the Margrave of Brandenburg led a 
Lutheran federation. 

The Peasants' War, partially an outcome of the influence 
of Luther, needs careful study at this point. Its connection 
with earlier struggles of the peasantry of Germany for fuller 
recognition of their rights is to be noted. The noble Twelve 
Articles, in which they set forth their claims, are evidence of 
the presence of a master mind among them. The struggle 
became fateful for Luther, since he ultimately took the side 
of the princes against the peasants, and thereby sealed the 
fate of the free movement which he had inaugurated and 



368 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

postponed indefinitely the advent of democracy in Germany. 
The connection of the Peasants' War with premillenial 
expectations and with the Anabaptist movement indicates 
the presence of a spiritual factor in European life distinct from 
that which obtained legal sanction and connected inwardly 
with the dissenting movement in Protestant countries. 

Literature. — Vandam and Fisher, Social Germany in Luther's Time 
(London: Constable, 1902), a translation of the memoirs of Barthol- 
omew Sastrow; Bax, The Peasants' War in Germany (London: Sonnen- 
schein, 1899); Cambridge Modern History, Vol. 11. 

The play of general European politics comes in at this 
point. The relations between Emperor Charles V, King 
Francis I of France, King Henry VIII of England, the Pope, 
and the Turks compKcated the situation and rendered the 
emperor helpless against Luther. The temporary truce with 
the Protestants on the basis Cujus regio, ejus religio (''the 
religion of the prince shall determine the religion of the people 
of his territory"), which became the basis of the final peace 
long afterward, was made at the Diet of Speyer in 1526. To 
understand this it is necessary to examine the feudal principles 
in vogue in the governments of the German states and to 
become acquainted with the part the Turks had been playing, 
and were still playing, in the politics of Europe. Charles's 
defeat of Francis and the Turks renewed the terrible danger 
to the new faith and resulted in the famous Protest at the 
Diet of Speyer in 1529 which gave to the new party the name 
of Protestants. The Augsburg Confession, drawn up by 
Melanchthon and presented in 1530 to the Diet, should be 
carefully examined at this point for a knowledge of the con- 
servative doctrinal position of the Protestants. 

Literature. — See Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 4th ed., Vol. Ill (New 
York: Harper, 1905); Kidd, Documents Illustrative, etc., p. 259. 
See also Melanchthon's Loci Communis, ed. Kolde (Leipzig, Deichert, 
1890). His collected works were published at Wittenberg, 1562-64. 
For a recent account of him read J. M. Richard, Philip Melanchthon, 
the Protestant Preceptor of Germany (New York: Putnam, 1898). 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 369 

The Marburg Conference. — The distinctive character of 
the Lutheran movement on its rehgious and doctrinal side is 
brought out more fully by reference to the abortive conference 
at Marburg in 1529, when Lutheran princes attempted to find 
a basis of union with the Zwinglians for common ecclesiastico- 
political action (for Zwinglianism see below). The far- 
reaching consequences of the difference between Luther and 
Zwingli on the question of the Supper becomes indicative of 
two widely diverging lines of Protestant development — the 
RationaHst-Evangelical and the Protestant- CathoHc, the one 
issuing in the free churches and rationalism and the other in 
the sacramental state churches. 

c) Lutheran settlements of faith and polity. — The third 
stage is the stage of politico-ecclesiastical and military con- 
flict. The story belongs particularly to political and military 
history. The significant documents are the Schmalkald 
Articles drawn up by Luther as the basis of the Schmalkald 
league in opposition to the Catholic league, the Interim 
statement issued by the emperor after defeating the Protes- 
tants at Miihlberg in 1547 (a year after Luther's death), 
specifying the temporary rights to be enjoyed by the Protes- 
tants, till he could finish with them, and arousing the jealousy 
of the papacy by the assumption of the imperial right to 
dictate terms of faith, and the Peace of Augsburg after the 
Protestant victory, giving the Lutheran faith (and no other 
form of Protestantism) a legal position alongside Catholicism 
in Germany on the basis Cujus regio, ejus religio. 

In this connection should be noted the special proviso in 
favor of Catholic territories known as the Ecclesiastical 
Reservation, because it reserved to Catholicism the territory 
belonging to a prince who, having formerly been a Catholic, 
might turn Protestant. See Kidd, Documents, etc., pp. 319, 

358, 3^3'^ 

This is a suitable point for a review of the general character 
of the Lutheran Reformation, with its mixture of conservatism 



370 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

and radicalism, for a survey of the inner religion of Luther and 
his theology, and for an estimate of his services to the German 
people and of his contribution to the creation of their nation- 
hood. 

The German Reformation exhibits in its variegated and 
confusing movements the uprising out of feudalism of a 
nascent national consciousness against the artificial restraints 
imposed upon the spirit of the people by the Empire and the 
Church. This new national spirit found its highest expression 
and inspiration in Martin Luther and in his semi-mystical 
religious faith, but the divisive internal condition of the 
country, and the want of interest in the intellectual freedom 
represented by the Renaissance and in the religious freedom 
represented by the Anabaptists, prevented a clear victory over 
the traditional and reactionary forces. In non- German coun- 
tries the outcome was similar, except that in some of these 
Lutheranism prepared the way for other movements. 

3. Significance of the Lutheran Reformation. — The whole 
movement in Germany may be reviewed under two main 
heads, its political side and its spiritual side. On the political 
side a thorough reconstruction on a constitutional or popular 
basis was rendered impossible at the time and for centuries 
later, on the one hand by the traditional respect for the 
Empire and by the personal prowess of an emperor who was 
as much Spanish as German, and who was bent on subjugating 
national aspirations to imperial interests, and on the other 
hand by the persistence of the feudal spirit in the princes, 
by their lack of national spirit, and by their selfish desire— 
with exceptions — to enhance their own authority by means of 
the religious and ecclesiastical reformation. Thus the move- 
ment as a whole lacked coherence and unity of aim. Each 
little state drew up its own creed and its ecclesiastical system 
under the control of its prince; each of these, again, was 
jealous of the others, and all of the emperor. No great 
statesman arose to bring the national hopes to fruition. 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 371 

Luther's own support of the princes against the people con- 
firmed the fatal tendency. 

On the distinctively spiritual side — i.e., in religion, morals, 
and theology — there was better progress ; but here also the 
combination of radicalism and conservatism and the fencing- 
in of the spirit by hereditary forms made inevitable either a 
period of stagnation or future outbreaks of inner strife. 
The manner in which Luther's invaluable contribution to the 
life of Germany was checked may be observed somewhat in 
detail: 

a) As respects the essence of all religion, i.e., the free com- 
munion of the human spirit with God: Luther affirmed the 
immediacy of the action of divine grace upon the souls of men 
and maintained the all-sufficiency of the principle of inner 
faith (trust) for the fullest participation in that grace; but 
he never got clear of the idea of the necessity of the action of 
the church and the sacraments for its impartation. Conse- 
quently a superstitious sacramentalism and a subjection of 
reason to church dogmas continued. 

b) As respects the mutual religious communion of men: 
The imiversal priesthood of believers was affirmed against the 
pretensions of a sacerdotal order. A natural corollary would be 
the universal right of believers to voluntary association and 
the free, spontaneous utterance of personal faith for mutual 
profit and fulfilment of fellowship; but the deep-seated 
monastic distrust of human nature on the one side, and 
the dread of a radical democracy on the other side, issued 
in the subjection of religious communion to the authority 
of the sovereign civil power. 

c) As respects freedom of thought and its place in religion : 
The competency and right of each human mind to interpret 
revelation (the word of God) for itself and, therewith, the 
necessity of a free criticism of all utterances purporting to be 
a divine message were accepted in principle and exercised at 
times; but Luther's inheritance of Catholic intellectual 



372 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

timidity, his uns3raipathetic attitude toward the Renaissance, 
and his distrust of reason combined with the exigencies of 
controversy to readmit the external doctrinal authority of the 
Bible as the written and final word of God and prepared the 
way for the later withering scholasticism and for the reinstate- 
ment of legalism in religion. 

d) As respects the ideal of the Christian life: In place 
of a life restricted to the narrow limits prescribed by ecclesias- 
tical legislation and by the monkish demand for world-flight 
Luther held to the free outgoing of the soul to its self-chosen 
end and to the fulfilment of the normal tasks of life in the 
midst of natural conditions, such as the family, the state, 
industry; but over against this wholesome view he held to the 
idea of a universal fall of nature and of the bondage of the will. 
He was destitute, accordingly, of positive interest in science 
or philosophy, and to the clear idea of liberty of conscience 
and political freedom he never attained. On these lines 
Germany was held back for centuries. 

e) Over and above these defects stand, however, indis- 
putable services to the German people and to humanity: 
the translation of the Bible into the popular German tongue 
(thereby standardizing it and really making it the language 
of German literature) and the gift of the Bible to the people, 
thereby insuring the continuance of the work of the earlier 
dissenters; the preparation of a hymnody expressive of the 
newer and fuller religious life, of religious catechisms for the 
young (thereby preparing the way for the famous German 
educational system) , and of a system of order for the churches 
and equipment for the priests; finally, the cumulative effect 
of these and other causes in the creation of a German Protes- 
tant nation. 

Literature. — Kostlin, The Theology of Luther, translation (Lutheran 
Pub. Co., 1898), is a standard work on his doctrinal views. Vedder, 
The Reformation in Germany (New York: Macmillan, 1914), attempts, 
with a measure of success, to tell the whole story from the point of view of 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 373 

the social interest. For the literature of the Lutheran Reformation see 
Newman, Manual of Church History, II, 40 (Philadelphia: American 
Baptist Pub. Soc, 1900); Lindsay, History of the Reformation, II, 189 f. 
(New York: Scribner, 1906); Denifle, Luther und Luthertum, II, 290 ff. 
(Mainz: Kirchheim, 1909). 

bT the LUTHERAN REFORMATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES 

The idea of a single imperial church with a single imperial 
state as its complement, by reason of its furthering of the 
sense of unity, must be kept in mind as a powerful factor in 
the spread of Lutheran ideas among the peoples of Europe. 
Since the center of the Empire was in Germany it was natural 
that the influence of the Lutheran movement should be felt 
among other peoples proportionately to their racial and 
spiritual kinship with the Germans. We may thus make a 
threefold division of the countries affected: first, those in 
which Lutheranism became the form of religion established in 
the state, as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden; secondly, those 
in which it prepared the way for a Protestantism of a different 
type, as England, Scotland, and Holland; thirdly, those in 
which it was temporarily powerful but ultimately failed, as 
France, Spain, Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria. 
The study of the Lutheran reform in these lands tends to 
bring out clearly the fact of the complication of the Christian 
religious spirit with many other tendencies. 

I. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.— The student should 
acquaint himself with the intimate political interrelations of 
the three peoples from early times, their political union in 
1397, and the independence of Sweden under Gustavus Vasa 
in 1523. The internal political condition of each is to be 
noted — the struggle in Sweden between the nobility and the 
hierarchy and in Denmark between the crown and the nobility, 
supported by the bishops. In the former country the labors 
of Olaf and Lars Petersen and of other Lutheran ministers 
with the support of the king, the establishment of a Lutheran 
episcopacy, and the development of a vigorous Protestantism 



374 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

that wrought victoriously in the struggles of the Thirty 
Years' War are the points of chief interest. 

Literature. — For a general history of the Swedes consult C. F. 
Johnstone, Abstracts of the History of the States of Europe (London: 
Kegan Paul, 1880) ; for the time of the Reformation, Weidling, Schwedische 
Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation (Gotha: Schloessmanii, 1882); 
for the Reformation itself, Butler, The Reformation in Sweden under 
Charles IX (New York: Randolph, 1883); for the Swedish church from 
1500 to the present, J. Wordsworth, The National Church of Sweden 
(Milwaukee: Young Churchman Co., igri). 

Denmark led Norway and Iceland. In Denmark there is, 
first, the failure of Christian II, nephew of the Elector Fred- 
erick the Wise of Saxony, to follow the successful efforts of his 
uncle in his attack on the clergy; then the loss of his king- 
dom to another uncle, Frederick I, who himself became a 
convert through the Lutheran preacher, Hans Tausen; and, 
finally, the resultant struggle between the two religious 
parties and the accession of a Protestant son, Christian III, 
who established the episcopal Lutheranism that remains to 
the present time the Danish church. 

Literature. — For the general history of these lands see Johnstone, 
op. cit.; for an elaborate ecclesiastical history of Denmark and Norway 
to the time of the Reformation study Miinter, Kirchengeschichte von 
Danemark und Norwegen, 3 vols. (Leipzig: Vogel, 1823-34); F. C. 
Dahlmann, Geschichte von Danemark (Hamburg: Perthes, 1840-41); for 
the ecclesiastical history of Norway from the earHest times to the down- 
fall of the Catholic church, T. B. Willson, History of Church and State 
in Norway (London: Constable, 1903). 

2. England, Scotland, and Holland. — The story of Luther- 
anism in these countries is only a part of the story of the 
Reformation there. The student who is especially interested 
in the Lutheran Reformation will naturally seek to estimate 
its influence on these countries. He will find much difference 
of opinion and must content himself with general statements. 
Lutheranism prepared the way for the establishment of Cal- 
vinism in the two latter countries and for the somewhat 



THE PRaTESTANT REFORMATION 375 

distinct type of ecclesiastical life we may call Anglicanism in 
the first. 

In England. — ^An independent judgment on the influence 
of Lutheranism can be reached only by a thorough mastery of 
the history and genius of the English people before and 
during the Tudor period and by the study of state documents 
and of -such collections as Letters and Papers, Foreign and 
Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII; Strype's Annals of the 
Reformation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1824) and Ecclesi- 
astical Memorials (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1822), and the 
works of the EngHsh theologians. The following points are 
of special interest: the knowledge of Luther's work in Eng- 
land, the relations between Henry and Luther, the influence of 
the state-church arrangements of the German princes, the 
effect of the Schmalkald War, the relations with Melanchthon 
and other German theologians, and the inspiration given to 
William Tyndale by Luther's translation of the Bible. The 
estimate offered by Pollard in the Cambridge Modern History, 
Vol. II, is worth noting. 

In Scotland. — Here the influence of Lutheranism found less 
support from earlier domestic reforming movements, though 
Lollardy was at work. The Lutheran influence is mainly 
traceable in the career of the first martyr. Sir Patrick Hamil- 
ton, of George Buchanan, of George Wishart, and in the earlier 
activities of John Knox. 

Literature. — Materials are found in Fox's Acts and Monuments, new 
and complete ed. (London: Seeley & Burnside, 1837-41); the Collected 
Works of John Knox (Edinburgh: Wodrow Soc, 1857). The career of 
Hamilton is set forth in Lorimer, Precursors of Knox (Edinburgh: 
Hamilton, 1857). 

In Holland. — The Lutheran movement in the Netherlands 
is closely connected with the determined but unsuccessful 
attempt of Emperor Charles V to subdue dissent. 

Literature. — ^Among the many accounts the most interesting to the 
American student will be Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic (New York : 



376 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Harper, 1867). Even more valuable is P. J. Blok, History of the People 
of the Netherlands, 5 Vols. (New York and London: Putnam, 1898- 
191 2). The story of the first Lutheran martyrs of the Netherlands, 
Henry Voes and John Esch, is told by Brandt, The History of the Refor- 
mation, Vol. I (London: T. Woode, 1720). 

3. In several countries that ultimately remained Catholic. 

— In many parts of Europe the Lutheran movement roused 
numbers of the people to new or renewed efforts to break away 
from the papal church, but through the lack of moral energy 
or of religious depth or through unfavorable political or 
social or economic conditions their efforts fell away or were 
overthrown by a reactionary movement. The study of these 
struggles belongs ultimately to the study of the Counter- 
Reformation. However, in an inquiry into the history and 
character of Lutheranism the following suggestions may be 
followed at this point: 

In France. — ^Attention should be given to the work of 
Bishop Brigonnet of Meaux, Jacques Lefevre d'Estaples 
(Faber Stapulensis) , and Jean Leclerc, the martyr of 1525. 
Perhaps more important are the attitude and political ambi- 
tions of King Francis I, who, notwithstanding his patronage 
of the scholars of the Renaissance and his poHtical support of 
the German Protestants, sought rather to weaken the power 
of Emperor Charles V than to encourage the new religious 
movement in his own realm. 

Literature. — ^H. M. Baird, History of the Rise of the Huguenots, 
especially chaps, ii-v (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1880), should be 
read for a knowledge of the whole situation. 

In Spain. — Here the influence of Lutheranism on the 
religious views of Emperor Charles V (King Charles I of Spain) 
and on the Spaniards whom he brought into Germany is of 
some significance. Chief interest centers in the evangehcals 
and martyrs of Seville and Valladolid and in the overbearing 
effect on the Spanish character of the long struggle with 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 377 

Mohammedanism, which gave to Spain the poHtical and 
mihtary leadership of Europe. 

Literature. — Of the somewhat extensive Hterature on the subject 
the following may be named: Lea, Chapters from the Religious History 
of Spain (Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1890); Prescott, History of the 
Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and History of the Reign of the Emperor 
Charles V (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1872 and 1873); Betts, translations 
of various works of Spanish reformers (London: Trtibner, 1869-83). 

In Italy. — Here the Lutheran influence did not go very far 
on its religious side, but it strengthened the spirit of the 
Renaissance and the rationalistic trend in Italian spiritual 
revolt. One may note the revival of interest in the works 
of Augustine, the translations of the Bible and of the works of 
Lutheran theologians, the friendship of the Duchess Renata 
of Ferrara, and the abortive conference at Regensburg. 

Literature. — McCrie, History of the Progress and Suppression of the 
Reformation in Italy (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1827), is an old book but 
valuable for a general survey. 

In Poland, Bohemia, and Moravia. — ^In these countries 
Luther anism was temporarily powerful, and less so in Hungary 
and several provinces of Austria, as the Tyrol, Salzburg, 
Styria, and Carinthia. Emphasis is to be placed on the rela- 
tion to mediaeval dissenting bodies, as Hussites and Bohemian 
Brethren, and to the preparatory relation to later Reforma- 
tion movements, as anti-Trinitarianism, Anabaptism, and 
Calvinism. 

C. THE LUTHERAN THEOLOGY 

The best index to the character of the Lutheran Refoma- 
tion on its religious and intellectual side is found in its theology. 
This is to be studied, as to its method genetically, and as to 
its content or form. 

I. Augustinian sources. — Genetically: First, the Lutheran 
theology is to be traced to the Augustinian interpretation of 
Christianity by which Luther, being an Augustinian monk, was 
deeply influenced. This can be seen especially in his doctrines 



378 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

of sin, grace, bondage of the will, election. Secondly, the 
monastic life, and the works of the mediaeval mystics with 
which Luther was familiar, produced the mystical view of 
salvation as an experience overriding the claims of reason 
and introduced a realistic view of the human relation to the 
Redeemer and that immediacy of assurance of the truth of the 
revelation that had come to him which enabled him to set his 
personal convictions over against all authority. Thirdly, 
his training in Catholic modes of thought produced, some- 
what in opposition to the other tendencies above men- 
tioned, that habit of resting on the letter of the Scriptures 
and that dependence on sacraments which was never shaken 
off. Fourthly, the distinctive personality of the man Luther, 
so original and so powerful, gave to all his views a peculiar 
stamp and impressed his convictions on multitudes. 

2. Method. — The method of Luther's theology was varied 
and irregular. His churchly training and his literalism com- 
bined with a natural self-assertion to establish the dogmatical 
method. With this was combined a spirit of free criticism, 
especially as to religious values, which enabled him to use 
the Bible as a work of devotion and inspiration rather han 
as an external authority, and to set a-going a powerful 
impulse toward a truly religious view of revelation and life. 
But he never attained to the historical method of investiga- 
tion and interpretation and often fell into mere allegorizing 
after the long-established method of the Catholic theologians. 

3. Content. — The content of Lutheran Theology, especially 
after Melanchthon gave it form and moderated its tone, was 
mainly Catholic in form and somewhat so in spirit, the doc- 
trines of grace and faith and the reduction of the sacramental 
view of salvation to narrower limits being most in evidence. 
For the specific doctrines of Lutheranism consult the authori- 
ties named below. 

Literature. — For documentary sources of Luther's theology the stu- 
dent may consult the Erlangen edition of his collected works (1826-27); 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 379 

his Briefe, ed. DeWette (Berlin: Reimer, 1825-28); Melanchthon's Loci 
Communes, ed. Kolde (Leipzig: Deichert, 1890), and the Lutheran stan- 
dards in Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. Ill (New York: Harper, 
1877, 4th ed., 1905). . 

Brief expositions of Lutheran doctrine are given in Fisher, History 
of Christian Doctrine (New York: Scribner, 1901); Harnack, Dogmen- 
geschichte, III, 725-814 (Freiburg: Mohr, 1897; English translation, 
VII, 180 ff. [Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1900]). The best exposition 
in extenso is Kostlin, The Theology of Luther, translated by Hay (Phila- 
delphia: Lutheran Pub. Soc, 1897). 

D. ESTIMATE OF LUTHERANISM 

This may proceed on several lines, e.g. : first, its religious 
value, especially its effect on the higher religious life of Ger- 
many; secondly, its influence on morals, especially the 
effect at that time of removing external restraints on those 
accustomed to them, and the later effects; thirdly, the intel- 
lectual power of the movement, especially the extent to which 
it carried forward the impulse of the Renaissance and devel- 
oped a deeper interest in education and general intelligence; 
fourthly, its destructive and constructive work in the field of 
religious doctrine; fifthly, its relation to religious liberty, 
particularly in reference to the Anabaptists and to the creation 
or toleration of free dissent; sixthly, its part in the develop- 
ment of the national spirit of Germany in particular and of 
Europe in general, and the t3T>e of civil government to which it 
is most nearly akin. 

Literature. — For instances of contrary estimate see Lindsay, History 
of the Reformation, Book II, chap, vii (New York: Scribner, 1905), and 
Newman, Manual of Church History, II, 115 ff. (Philadelphia: American 
Baptist Pub. Soc, 1 900-1 903). 

IV. THE ORIGIN AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REFORMED 
CHURCHES 

The name Reformed churches, or churches of the Re- 
formed, pertains to a number of the new religious organiza- 
tions of the Reformation that were Protestant but differed 



380 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

from Lutheranism in important features and continued 
separate from both Lutherans and Catholics. In spirit, in 
order, in worship, in doctrine, in government, and in relation 
to the civil power they were distinct. They were also more 
cosmopolitan than the Lutheran church and found a home 
early in Switzerland, Holland, Scotland, in many parts of the 
Empire, for a time in France, to a degree in England, and at 
last in the United States of America. A knowledge of this 
movement demands a prolonged and involved study of con- 
ditions in many lands. 

A twofold origin of the Reformed church can be traced, 
though the two streams coalesced, namely, in the work of 
Huldreich Zwingli and in that of John Calvin, both first 
established in Switzerland, the former contemporary with 
Luther and the latter a generation later. The study will 
proceed best by countries. 

Our first study must be the history of the Swiss people 
to the time under consideration, their characteristics, and 
their method of government. Their geographical situation, 
the physical features of their country, their racial diversities, 
their relations with other people, their achievement of political 
independence by warfare, the degree to which they came under 
the influence of the Renaissance and of such mediaeval 
dissenters as the Waldenses, the industry, simplicity, and 
thrift for which they were noted, are all important factors in 
the reformation of religion. Domestic political conditions, the 
local democracies (cantonal self-government), the loose con- 
federacy in which thirteen urban cantons and four ''forest" 
cantons were united, the inner differences among these, espe- 
cially in intelligence, are to be recognized as determining the 
final form in which the Reformation was set up or the rejection 
of it. They also partly explain the early success and the 
final overthrow of the Anabaptist propaganda there. 

Literature. — Seebohm and Johnson, as above (p. 363), and the 
general church histories. For a more elaborate knowledge use Joseph 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 381 

Planta, History of the Helvetic Confederacy, 3 vols. (London: Stockdale, 
1 800-1 807). 

The Reformation in Switzerland arose mainly in two 
centers, Zurich and Geneva — the movement in the former 
under the leadership principally of Huldreich Zwingh and in 
the latter under the leadership principally of John Calvin. 
The account of each is inseparable from the personal career of 
the leaders. 

THE ZWINGLIAN REFORMATION 

The character and career of Zwingli. — His family, his 
education at Bern, Basel, and Vienna, the influence of the 
New Learning on him through such men as Erasmus and 
Thomas Wyttenbach and his strong intellectual revulsion 
against popular Catholic superstitions, his close attention to 
biblical and classic studies during his priesthood at Glarus and 
Einsiedeln, his chaplaincy of a mercenary Swiss regiment 
campaigning in Italy, and his resolute patriotic stand against 
the mercenary practice are the features of importance in his 
pre-reforming career. 

His great pastorate at Zurich and his public controversies, 
by the appointment of the civil authorities, with the upholders 
of indulgence-selling, ecclesiastical tithing, celibacy, fasts, 
image- worship, papal primacy, the mass, saint- worship, purga- 
tory, and such practices gave him the leadership of the new 
movement. The resulting civil establishment of the Re- 
formed faith as set forth in Zwingli's Sixty-seven Articles 
and the rejection of the radical program of the Anabaptists, 
followed by the public prosecution and cruel punishment of 
these people, complete the movement in Zurich. 

Thence the interest widens to the whole extent of the 
Swiss confederacy and brings the Zwinglian Reformation 
directly into contact with general European politics and the 
Lutheran Reformation. The progress of ZwingHanism, 
modified somewhat in other places by its contact with reform- 
ing efforts already at work elsewhere in Switzerland, brings to 



382 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

our attention the names of Leo Judaeus, Conrad Grebel, and 
Balthazar Hubmaier (the two latter to be known later as 
Anabaptists) at Zurich; the city of Bern, and the work of 
John and Berthold Haller and Sebastian Meyer; Basel, where 
the work of Erasmus and Wyttenbach is carried farther 
by Capito and Hedio, later by William Reublin, and finally by 
Oecolampadius; St. Gall and Appenzell, and the work of 
Vadianus; Schaffhausen, which adopted the Reformation 
under the influence of Sebastian Hofmeister and Sebastian 
Meyer; the Graubiinden, where John Comander persuaded 
the mixed population to accept an established church which 
tolerated both Zwinglians and Catholics, but not Anabaptists; 
and at length many cities of Southwestern Germany, such as 
Augsburg, Strassburg, and Frankfurt, which accepted the 
Reformed faith and became centers of great power for the 
spread of the whole Protestant Reformation. 

The relations of similarity and contrast with Lutheranism 
can be brought out by a study of the invitation given to the 
leaders to meet in conference, looking to a union in a com- 
mon religious and political effort at Marburg, the colloquy 
between Luther and Zwingli, and the failure to unite. The 
outcome as regards the standing of the Reformed church and 
the Catholic church in Switzerland at large appears in the 
two wars of Cappel and in the Peace of Cappel, so disappoint- 
ing to Zwinglians. 

Literature. — There is much material to examine. A general view 
of the Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and its 
influence on the Swiss reformers can be obtained from the Cambridge 
Modern History, Vol. I, or Paul Van Dyke, Age of the Renaissance (New 
York: Scribner, 1897). Zwingli's life and doctrines are pretty fully 
exhibited in the histories of the Reformation. S. M. Jackson's Huldreich 
Zwingli, the Reformer of Switzerland (New York: Putnam, 1901) and The 
Latin Works and Correspondence of Huldreich Zwingli (New York: 
Longmans, Green, & Co., 1912) are valuable. A. Baur, in Zwinglis 
Theologie (Halle: Niemeyer, 1885-89), sets forth the Reformer's doctrine 
at length. Zwinglii Opera are edited in German and published in eight 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 383 

volumes (Schultess: Zurich, 1828-42). Strickler, Actensammlung zur 
schweizerischen Reformations geschichte in den Jahren ij2i-ijj2, 5 vols. 
(Zurich: Meyer & Zeller, 1878-84), gives the most complete historical 
material. 

The student should seek to apprehend the peculiar signifi- 
cance of Zwinglianism by a comparison with Lutheranism orf 
such points as the following: the comparative influence of 
mysticism and rationalism on Luther and Zwingli; their 
respective attitudes as regards the relation of the religious 
reformation to the authority of the civil power; the breadth 
of human sympathy and of doctrine in each; their attitude 
toward sacraments; their influence on the growth of a broad 
intelligence and of a courageous view of the world and the 
future of men. 

Literature. — Schaff gives some interesting suggestions in his history 
of the Swiss Reformation, History of the Christian Church, Vol. VII 
OSTew York: Scribner, 1 884-1 907). 

THE CALVINIST REFORMATION 

There are certain preliminary considerations necessary 
to the study of the Calvinist Reformation. First, it began 
about a generation later than the Lutheran and Zwihglian 
movements and profited by them as well as by the earlier 
work of such men as William Farel; it became naturally 
better organized than these and represented a higher stage 
of the Protestant consciousness and also a more advanced 
organization of the new religious forces. Calvinism is 
Protestantism clearly self-conscious and organized for aggres- 
sion. Secondly, it bears the stamp of the man by whose name 
it is known — of Calvin's French thoroughness and intellectu- 
ality, his moral sternness, legal training, intolerance of opposi- 
tion, leaning to aristocracy or despotism, vast learning, 
biblicism, and acquaintance with and interest in the political 
life of Western Europe. To understand Calvinism it is 
emphatically necessary to know the man in his relation to 



384 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

earlier and contemporary European politics and to the 
earlier anti-Catholic movements. 

Literature. — ^Lives of Calvin are numerous. The student should 
know Beza's Z^/e of Calvin, translation by Gibson (Philadelphia: Whet- 
ham, 1836) ; Henry's famous life of Calvin, Das Lehen Johann Calvins 
(Hamburg: Perthes, 1835-38; English translation [documents omitted] 
by Stebbing [New York: Carter, 1859]). Among the later lives, H. Y. 
Reyburn, John Calvin, His Life, Letters and Work (New York: Hodder 
& Stoughton, 1914), and L. Penning, Life and Times of Calvin (London: 
Kegan Paul, 191 2), are valuable, the former being especially discriminat- 
ing and the latter a tribute of high regard. Nevertheless, in contrast with 
the case of Luther, it is not so much the man as the theologian and states- 
man that interests us in Calvin. His Institutes of the Christian Religion 
(Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Soc, 1845-46) is the classic of Reforma- 
tion theology and his church-state at Geneva the model of contemporary 
and of later Protestant ecclesiastical organization. See Doumergue, 
Jean Calvin, les hommes et les choses de son temps (Lausanne: B ridel, 
1899-1908). We follow his work by countries. 

A. CALVINISM IN GENEVA — FOUNDING OF THE FIRST PROTESTANT 
THEOCRACY 

As introductory to the study there should be a knowledge 
of .the situation and general relations of the three French- 
speaking Swiss cantons, Geneva, Vaud, and Neuchatel. 
The limited territory of Geneva, its relations with the house of 
Savoy, the rise of a popular patriotic party (Eidgenots, 
Huguenots, Eidgenossen) , the supremacy of the idea of liberty 
rather than of morality, the constitution of the three councils 
that governed the little state, and the asserted overlordship 
of Bern constitute the main elements of the situation prior 
to the Reformation. 

Literature. — Consult Roget, Histoire du peuple de Geneve, 7 vols. 
(Geneva: Jullien, 1870-83). 

Preparatory to Calvin's religious and theological reform 
came the work of William Farel of Provence, Antojne Froment, 
his fellow-countryman, and Peter Viret, of Vaud, with its 
stern religiousness and violent iconoclasm. 

Literature. — See Herminjard, Correspondance des reformateurs dans 
les pays de la langue franqaise^ etc. (Paris: Fischbacher, 1866-97). 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATIO]^ 385 

Calvin's arrival in the city and his first abortive attempts to 
establish a uniform confession of faith and stern moral dis- 
cipline, with severe civil penalties for the heretical and the 
immoral, compulsory attendance on public worship, educa- 
tion and religious catechizing of children, and obedience in 
religion to the ministers brought out the inner antagonism 
between the Reformers and the Libertines; and the despotism 
of the former issued in their expulsion. This episode serves 
to bring out the underlying intolerance in Calvinism and might 
serve as a starting-point for a study of the struggle within 
Calvinism between the Judaistic elements and the Christian 
elements in it. 

Calvin's sojourn in Strassburg from 1538 to 1542, by 
bringing him into intimate relations with Protestant refugees 
from France and other lands, and by giving him leisure for 
friendly correspondence with Luther and his great colleague, 
the theologian Melanchthon, and for the enlargement of 
his Institutes, the writing of a commentary on Romans, the 
preparation of an elaborate scheme of church order, and the 
carrying on of controversies with Catholic leaders is to be 
viewed as the beginning of his remolding influence on Luther- 
anism and of the extension of his personal view throughout 
Western Europe. The study of the " Crypto- Calvinist" 
controversy among the Lutherans, relating especially to the 
Lord's Supper, indicates the character of the Calvinist influ- 
ence on Lutheran doctrine. 

Literature. — Such documents as the Augsburg Variata, the Apology 
for the Augsburg Confession, and other documents published in the 
Corpus Doctrinae Philip pum after the death of Melanchthon, indicate the 
extent of the controversy. The Formula of Concord (see Schaff , Creeds 
of Christendom, Vol. Ill), by which the Lutheran theologians tried to 
settle these and other disputes, should be examined in this connection. 
See also Schaff, "The Friendship of Calvin and Melanchthon," Papers 
of the American Society of Church History (1889). 

Calvin's recall to Geneva and the work of the twenty-two 
remaining years of his life there brought into being the cast- 
iron system of religious and civil control for which Geneva 



386 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

became famous, and supplied to Europe the needed demonstra- 
tion of the abihty of Protestantism to estabKsh an order of 
faith and of moral and political life which became a standing 
proof that it was not simply a disintegrating force but truly 
constructive in a wide sense. The details of the labors that 
effected this must be sought in the histories of the Reformation 
on its religious side and on its political side also. The follow- 
ing features of the Genevan theocracy merit special attention : 
Calvin's nominal limitation to the life of a minister and teacher 
but practical ecclesiastico-political dictatorship; his funda- 
mental conviction that the whole life of the people in their 
domestic, social, industrial, and political relations must be 
put under the strict authority of religion whether by con- 
sent or by outer compulsion (compare the Roman CathoHc 
view) ; the use of the teachings of the Old Testament, espe- 
cially the two Tables of Moses, as divinely given instructions 
on this matter; the relentless enforcement of the laws by a 
system of espionage and of penalties ranging from beheading 
to fines, and covering the minutest details of pubHc and 
private life, both religious' and secular; the founding of the 
Consistory, a mixed body of ministers and laymen in the ratio 
of one to two, for the enforcement of ecclesiastical rules; 
the impulse thereby given to republicanism. Observe that 
Calvin founded a church-state rather than a state-church, 
perfecting Zwingli's idea and reversing Luther's. 

Literature. — ^Eugene Choisy, UEtat chretien calviniste a Geneve 
(Paris : Fischbacher, 1902) ; Auguste Lang, Zwingli und Calvin (Bielefeld : 
Velhagen & Klasing, 1913). 

In addition to this local activity one must notice Calvin's 
intimate acquaintance and co-operation with the work of the 
Reformed church in other countries. Theodore Beza in 
France, John Knox in Scotland (now a Calvinist rather than 
a Lutheran), English Protestant statesmen, and the Dutch 
Reformers received inspiration and counsel from him. He 
became the outstanding figure of Protestantism in his closing 
years. 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 387 

Literature. — For a broad survey of his relations to Protestantism 
read Williston Walker, John Calvin, the Organizer of Reformed Protestant- 
ism i^^vf York: Putnam, 1906). 

Accompanying all this was an intense literary activity. 
The student will do well to examine particularly the con- 
troversies with Catholics, Anabaptists, anti-Trinitarian dis- 
senters, especially the Socini and Servetus (R. Willis, Servetus 
and Calvin [London: King, 1877]), and the relation, spiritually, 
between Calvinism and these. It would be interesting to 
discover whether Calvinism is the more closely related in 
spirit and idea with rationalist Unitarianism, Lutheranism, 
or Catholicism. 

Literature. — Calvin's correspondence with churches, statesmen, 
and princes in many sections of Europe and with the sovereigns of 
England, France, and Navarre can be read in Jules Bousset, Lettres de 
Jean Calvin, 2 vols. (Paris, 1854). There was published at Lausanne 
in 1575, his Epistolae et Responsa, and at Amsterdam, 1667-71, his col- 
lected works (Opera Omnia). The Calvin Translation Society (1844-55) 
published translations of his commentaries on practically the whole 
Bible and his tracts containing dogmatical and controversial treatises. 
A selection of his most celebrated sermons in translation was published 
in Philadelphia in 1849. 

B. THE CALVINIST REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND — FOUNDING OF 
SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIANISM 

The Reformation in Scotland may be regarded as, in a 
sense, the resultant of the complication of religious and 
ecclesiastical reform with a disturbed condition of foreign 
and domestic politics. The long-standing alliance between 
the royal house of Scotland and the royal house of France as a 
means of protection against English aggression was threatened 
by the inauguration of the policy of the Tudor house of Eng- 
land, which sought alliance with Scotland by royal inter- 
marriage. These two parties divided the country. Related 
to this situation were the internal economic, social, and 
political strifes threatening the integrity of the realm. The 



388 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

crown was strongly Catholic and papal in sympathy, but the 
nobility, for patriotic reasons and for the sake of gaining 
the control of the church's property, led an opposition to 
the church and crown. When England became politically 
and ecclesiastically Protestant, the Scottish lords gained a 
vast accession of strength by alliance with English Protestant- 
ism. Add to this the old antipathy between the untamed 
Highlanders and the more civilized Lowlanders and you have 
the conditions of a distracting struggle that might be brought 
to a successful issue by the appearance of some strong man. 
He came in the Calvinist, John Knox. Calvinism, by placing 
the Reformed church in a position of dominance, became 
the chief source of the ultimate unity of Scottish life. 

Literature. — ^A general history of Scotland should be read, e.g., 
P. H. Brown, History of Scotland (Cambridge: Clay, 1900-); A. R. 
McEwen, A History of the Church of Scotland, Vol. I (London: Hodder 
& Stoughton, 1913), carries the ecclesiastical account from 397 a.d. to 
1546 A.D. 

John Knox. — The earlier reforming efforts have been 
noted. Knox's work of conserving their results and develop- 
ing a more powerful movement is partly to be accounted for 
by his personal career and character. In some respects he was 
another Calvin. Note, then, his slavery for religion's sake in 
the French galleys, his release through English intervention, 
his preaching for five years in England and his connection with 
the reform in Edward's reign, his five years on the Continent, 
mainly at Geneva and Frankfurt, and his return to Scotland. 
The organization of the Protestants under the ''Lords of the 
Congregation" and their covenant, and the assumption of the 
name "Church" with a confession of faith drawn up by 
Knox in 1560 and approved by Parliament, mark the begin- 
ning of the new order. The articles of that confession are 
especially important because they were the standard of 
Scottish Protestantism for nearly a hundred years and 
became the vestibule to the Westminster Confession of 1647. 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 389 

The function assigned to civil government is significant of its 
thorough Calvinistic or church-state ideal. 

Literature. — For the story of the Reformation consult D. Hay Flem- 
ing, The Scottish Reformation (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 19 10), and 
the Story of the Scottish Covenants (Edinburgh: Oliphant, 1904). There 
are many lives of Knox. Among the later are A. T. Innes, John Knox 
(New York: Scribner, 1896), and A. Lang, John Knox and the Reforma- 
tion (New York: Putnam, 1905). Lorimer's John Knox and the Church 
of England (London: King, 1875) presents a side of Knox's activity 
often overlooked. Dean Stanley in his History of the Church of Scotland 
(London: Murray, 1872) presents the Episcopalian estimation of the 
Presbyterian and Episcopal struggles in Scotland. 

Four other steps completed the formation of the Presby- 
terian church of Scotland — the preparation of a book of dis- 
cipline which described the organization of the church, the 
provision of a liturgy, the translation and acceptance of 
Calvin's Catechism, and the adoption of a scheme for the 
education of fhe people. The conflicts of the next seven years, 
which ended in the legal establishment of the church as 
thus reformed, belong to the story of the great European 
struggle for the safety of Protestant countries, with England 
as the chief protagonist for the Reformation against the 
emperor and the king of Spain. 

Literature. — Original materials for study may be found in D. Laing's 
edition of Knox's Works (Edinburgh: Wodrow Soc, 1846-55); Calendar 
of State Papers, 1 547-1603 (Edinburgh, 1898); Pollen, Papal Negotiations 
with Mary Queen of Scots (Edinburgh: Scottish Historical Soc, 1901); 
J. F. S. Gordon, Ecclesiastical Chronicles of Scotland, 3 vols. (Dumfries, 
1875); Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. III. 

From the accession of James VI to the united throne of England and 
Scotland in 1603 onward for a century the history of the Church of 
Scotland is mainly the story of its struggles against Episcopacy and 
Independency. 

C. THE CALVINIST REFORMATION IN THE NETHERLANDS 

The interest in the Reformation in the Netherlands lies not 
so much in any distinctive character to be perceived in the 
religious spirit, in the theology, or in the ecclesiastical order 



390 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

established there by Protestantism as in the effect of the 
Reformation in the creation of the Dutch nation and in its 
vast influence on the history of Europe by virtue of its peculiar 
connection with the politics of the two opposing forces. The 
story of Dutch Calvinism belongs mainly to the political his- 
tory of those times. 

The principal preliminary studies are : first, the geograph- 
ical situation of the Low Countries — ^their physical features, 
their economic condition, and their commercial relations 
with other lands; secondly, the inhabitants — their racial 
differences (Dutch and Flemings), their ancient love of 
independence, their tenacity of inherited rights, local patriot- 
ism, vigor, industry, and determination; thirdly, political 
relations — the many municipal governments, the divided 
relation to the house of Burgundy and the house of France, 
their union by marriage with the house of Austria and later 
with the house of Spain, their direct political relation with 
Emperor Charles V and the consequent determination by him 
that their religious beliefs must conform with his own; 
fourthly, their open-mindedness toward intellectual and 
religious currents flowing from other lands, especially from 
the South. Thus we may trace the work of the Waldenses, 
Lollards, Humanists (e.g., Erasmus of Rotterdam was the 
leading figure of Humanism), Lutherans, Anabaptists, and 
finally Calvinists. The many private religious societies in 
the Netherlands (such as Brethren of the Common Lot) 
indicate the tendency toward a free position in matters of 
religion. 

The events of outstanding importance are mainly the 
following: pre-Lutheran biblicism and protests against the 
Catholic system under the influence of men like John Pupper . 
and John Wessel; the entrance of Luther's views and of 
those of the early Lutheran martyrs (noted above in the 
account of Luther anism, p. 375); the rapid multiplication of 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 391 

Bibles by the printing-press and the dissemination of radical 
views; the growth of Anabaptism and its overthrow through 
the ''Miinster Uproar"; the desperate and cruel attempts 
of Charles V to reduce dissent (see his infamous '^placards"), 
the lists of prohibited books, and his gradual introduction of 
the methods of the Spanish Inquisition — thus far to the abdi- 
cation of the emperor and the transference of the sovereignty of 
the Netherlands to his son, King Philip II of Spain. Then 
appeared his measures for the enforcement of the canons and 
decrees of the Council of Trent and the acceptance of the 
challenge by the Calvinists, who now became the leaders of 
the Reformation there. The iconoclasm of the Calvinists, 
the formation of consistories for defense, and the organization 
by the Spanish government of measures of suppression intro- 
duced the political revolution. 

The events of the hundred years' war of the Dutch 
Revolution belong to the political history of the Netherlands. 
With the detachment of the southern provinces to the Roman- 
ist side and the Union of Utrecht under the leadership of 
''William the Silent" of Orange, Holland becomes a new 
Protestant state with a state-supported Protestant church of 
the Calvinist type. 

Literature. — Of chief value for the new student are the following: 
A History of the Reformation in the Netherlands (in Dutch) by Brandt, a 
Remonstrant, published in 1671, gives an almost contemporary view. 
It was translated and published in English at London in 1720-21. In 
this work the religious history of the people is carried from the eighth 
century to the Synod of Dort. Reformation in den Niederlanden, 1518- 
1619, byC.P.H. de Groot, was translated into German and published at 
Giitersloh in 1893. It is brief. J. L. Motley, The Rise of the Dutch 
Republic, carrying the story to 1584, is fascinating modern work, super- 
seded, however, by P. J. Blok, History of the Netherlands. For the doc- 
trinal standards of the Dutch church consult Schaff, Creeds of 
Christendom. For the ecclesiastical movement see Lindsay, History of 
the Reformation (New York: Scribner, 1907). 



392 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

D. THE CALVINIST REFORMATION IN OTHER LANDS, ESPECIALLY IN 
FRANCE, GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, AND ENGLAND 

I. France. — The stirring but tragical story of the Hugue- 
nots, or French Calvinists, has attached an interest to the 
Reformation in France out of proportion to its actual influ- 
ence in world-affairs. The genius of the French people has 
been political rather than religious. The Reformation in 
France followed the genius of the people. 

At the outset of the study it is essential that the student 
place himself squarely abreast of the political situation in 
France at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The 
following are points of significance : the powerful nationalism 
of the French, developed partly through the long conflict 
with the Enghsh; the strongly monarchical authority in 
government, with a tendency to imperialism and despotism 
in church as well as state; '^ Gallicanism " as against the power 
of the papacy in the church of France; the personal policy 
of King Francis I, leading him to encourage the men of the 
Renaissance, to protect reformers like Lefevre and Berquin 
as against the Parlement of Paris, and to support the German 
Protestants against his rival, Emperor Charles V; his con- 
cordat with the Pope in 15 16, and his determination that 
Protestantism should not go so far as to threaten his despotic 
power. 

Literature. — ^Works on the political history of France should be 
consulted. George B. Adams, The Growth of the French Nation (New 
York: Macmillan, 1897), is an excellent one-volume survey. See also 
Duruy, Histoire de France (Psnis: Hachette, 1866; English translation by 
Carey, History of France [New York: Crowell, 1889]); G. W. Kitchin, 
History of France, 3 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1873), especially Vol. II. 
M. Guizot, History of France, 8 vols., is well known. 

The religious influences working positively toward a 
reformation may be discovered through a study of the char- 
acter of Francis' sister, Margaret of Angouleme, who became 
the mother of the noble Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Navarre 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 393 

and mother of Henry of Navarre, who was later King Henry 
IV of France; the early evangelical activity of Brigonnet, 
bishop of Meaux, Farel, Roussel, Marot, and Calvin; and the 
influence of Lutheranism, especially through Melanchthon. 

Literature. — ^These influences are described in detail by Baird in his 
The History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France, Vols. II-V (New York: 
Scribner, 1895-1907). For a French estimate of Calvin see F. P. G. 
Guyot, Louis and Calvin (London: Macmillan, 1878). 

When the character of the Reformation in France becomes 
more clearly defined, the influence of Geneva appears upper- 
most. The unfavorable change in the attitude of Francis 
becomes evident and occasions the publication of Calvin's 
Institutes, introduced by his famous address to the French 
king (which read). The proceedings of the Sorbonne (the 
theological faculty of the University of Paris) and the Parle- 
ment of Paris, with the king's support, following the posting of 
the Placards against the Mass, introduce the era of regular 
persecutions, marked by the massacre of the Vaudois in 1545. 
The history of the Waldenses (French Vaudois) should 
come under review in this connection. 

Literature. — For the progress of the persecution at this time the 
student may consult Bulletin de la Societe de VHistoire du Protestantisme 
Franqais for 1858, and H. M. Bower, The Fourteen of Meaux (London: 
Longmans, Green, & Co., 1894). 

With the death of Francis and the accession of Henry II 
comes a new period in French Protestant history. On the 
ecclesiastical side the scattered bands of Calvinists in nearly 
all the provinces of France, but especially in Normandy, 
Brittany, and Picardy, are organized after the Presbyterian 
model under the leadership of the great Theodore Beza and 
with the Confessio Gallica (Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 
Vol. Ill) as their doctrinal standard. On the political side are 
the division of the nobility into two parties, the Huguenot 
nobles under the leadership of the house of Bourbon and 
Admiral CoHgny of Chatillon and the Catholic nobles under the 



394 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

leadership of the Guises, and the treaty with Spain by which 
the king bound himself to co-operate with the Spaniards in 
the extirpation of the Protestants of the Netherlands and 
France. The year 1559 may be set as the great date in the 
story of French Calvinism. At that time the Huguenots 
became a religio-political party and Calvinism a political 
faith in France. 

The story of the next forty years is the story of the religious 
wars in France. Some of the great events may be noted here 
because of their significance: the entrance of the house of 
Navarre into French affairs, the massacre of St. Bartholemew's 
Eve, the War of the Three Henry's, and the Edict of Nantes. 

Literature. — ^For a thorough account up to 1574 read H. M. Baird, 
The History of the Rise of the Huguenots (New York: Scribner, 1895, 
1900, 1907). For the religious wars see Armstrong, The Religious Wars 
of France {Oxiord: Blackwell, 1904); Thompson, The Wars of Religion in 
France (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909). For the 
general history see The Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II. H. M. 
Baird, Theodore Beza (New York: Putnam, 1899), gives an account of the 
career of the great Huguenot ecclesiastical leader. 

2. Germany. — The salient points are: the limitation of the 
toleration secured to the Lutherans by the Treaty of Augsburg ; 
the acceptance of Calvinism by the Hohenzollerns and its 
spread in Prussia; its virtual establishment in the Palatinate 
by the Elector Frederick III, with the adoption of the Heidel- 
berg Catechism drawn up by Ursinus and Olevianus; the 
influence Calvin exercised on the views of Melanchthon 
(noted above) ; and the vigor imparted to German Protestant- 
ism, enabling it to play a courageous part, so far as the 
Calvinists were concerned, in the Thirty Years' War. 

3. Switzerland. — The virtual absorption of Zwinglianism 
by Calvinism is signalized by the adoption of the Second 
Helvetic Confession (1566) by the Protestant cantons (Schaff, 
Creeds of Christendom, Vol. III). 

4. England (see below). — The significance of Calvinism is 
seen especially in the struggle between Elizabeth and Mary, 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 395 

the rise of the Puritans and Nonconformists, the formulation 
of the Lambeth Articles, and the civil war under the Stuarts. 

D. RETROSPECT 

At this point the student may profitably make an estimate 
of the value of Calvinism for early Protestantism. The 
following points are of particular significance: its inner 
religious significance; its services to intelligence, morality, 
and civil life; its doctrinal constructiveness; its relation to 
the spirit of liberty and the -impulse to progress. 

Arising later than the Lutheran Reformation, Calvinism 
profited by the conquests and defeats, by the truth and the 
error, in the earlier movement. It was freer from the taint of 
monasticism and regard for sacraments, it had a more whole- 
some view of the world and a more hopeful outlook on its 
future. Calvinism was less mystical in its piety than Luther- 
anism and succeeded in imparting to its adherents a greater 
degree of assurance of objective final salvation and a clearer 
sense of personal relation to God. It was bolder and more 
thorough in its assertion of the prerogatives of intelligence 
and more definite in its formulation of its faith in doctrines. 
It had a firmer moral tone, exalted the authority of con- 
science, and estabhshed the importance of moral discipline 
in the churches. Calvinism has been the mother of great 
moral reforms. It possessed more initiative than Lutheran- 
ism in the matter of ecclesiastical organization and succeeded 
in vindicating the right of the church over against the claims of 
the civil power, in which the earlier movement had failed. 
Hence also its tendency to democratic or republican govern- 
ment. The vigor and statesmanship of its great leader 
enabled it to set up a militant Protestantism that successfully 
disputed the possession of the earth with Catholicism and to 
develop great church-states whose influence has largely per- 
vaded the world. The independence of the personal judgment 
which the intellectualism of Calvinism nourished has made it 



396 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

fruitful from its earliest times in the creation of dissent, but 
over against this it has exhibited a stern and hard intolerance 
that shrinks not from inflicting on others the sufferings that 
Calvinists were willing to endure, if need be, for their own 
faith. 

V. THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND 

The early Protestantism of England appears at first glance 
as almost wholly political and economic in character and its 
existence as due to the skilful manipulation of the proceedings 
of Parliament by one determined, selfish, and unscrupulous 
man. King Henry VIII. That at a later time English Protes- 
tantism became an immense moral and religious force fruitful 
in high achievement may be said to be the consequence mainly 
of the coming to England of great numbers of religious 
refugees from the Continent and to internal civil disturbances 
that favored a propagation of the Reformation faith. Though 
possessed of some superficial truth, this view is misleading. 
To understand the English Reformation one must understand 
the genius of the English people — their keen sense of inde- 
pendent nationhood, their reverence for the past (historical 
sense, regard for precedent), their honesty of purpose, their 
love of freedom and adventure, their appreciation of the 
worth of the practicable rather than the logical or ideal, 
their genuine religiousness. The church established by law 
in those days was such an establishment as was possible in a 
nation of people possessed of political genius capable of world- 
wide exercise and desirous that their national life and institu- 
tions be permeated by religion but not disintegrated by it. 

The student will observe how the early subserviency of 
the church in England began to yield to a sense of inde- 
pendence or opposition in the time of the Plantagenets, 
when Parliament and king (supported by a growing popular 
distrust and dislike for clergy and monks) and the powerful 
polemic of the great Wycliffe repeatedly defied the papal 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 397 

church and passed severe legislation against it. The accession 
of the house of Lancaster, its friendship for the papacy, its 
attempted suppression of the Lollards, Wy cliff e's successors, 
the submergence of the reforming movement in the conflict 
known as the Wars of the Roses, the virtual disappearance 
of the old nobility in the struggle, the rise of the Tudor dynasty 
with despotic power, the creation of a new nobility dependent 
on the will of the monarchy, and the gradual renewal of the 
power of the House of Commons are all to be taken account 
of in the religious and ecclesiastical revolution. 

Literature. — For this important preliminary study A. D. Innes, 
England under the Tudors (London: Methuen & Co., 1905) will furnish 
the student with a clear and just view of the general conditions. Dyson 
Hague, The Church of England before the Reformation (London : Hodder 
& Stoughton, 1897), describes from the churchman's point of view the 
ecclesiastical side of the preceding history. J. Gairdner, Lollardy and 
the Reformation, 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1908), gives an elaborate 
but very partial view of the influence of the Lollards, which may be 
corrected by reading G. M. Trevelyan, England in the Age of Wycliffe 
(London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1809); J. C. Carrick, Wycliffe and 
the Lollards (New York: Scribner, 1908), and the general histories. The 
influence of Humanism immediately before the Reformation is exhibited 
in Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 



The forces and conditions operative at the inception of 
the new movement in England may be specified in the main 
as follows: religious influences, persisting through earlier 
times, given fresh power and developing a distinctively Eng- 
lish type through the Wycliffian reformation; the infiltration 
into England of the Continental dissent that had prepared 
the way for reform and had produced a good many martyrs; 
the religious estrangement from Rome through the work of 
translators and expositors of the Scriptures (e.g., Colet, 
Erasmus, and More); the immense incitement to opposition 
to the Roman church through Luther's doctrine of justifica- 
tion by faith; the Renaissance, arousing skepticism as to the 



398 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

church's doctrines and claims and disclosing the ignorance 
and corruption in the priesthood and monks ; foreign political 
relations, embracing the scheme of alliances through inter- 
marriage among the royal houses, of which the marriage of 
Henry VIII with Catharine of Aragon, the alignment of 
England with Spain, and the Pope's dispensation granting him 
the right to marry his deceased brother's widow, involving 
the papacy in the dissatisfaction the fruitless marriage ulti- 
mately produced in the headstrong but superstitious king, 
constituted a signal instance; the long-pent-up anger of the 
English people with the papacy as a foreign power that 
nevertheless drew heavy revenues from an unwilling people; 
finally, the popularity of Henry with his own people and his 
power to awaken their enthusiasm by elevating England in 
the eyes of Europe at a time when pope and emperor were at 
loggerheads and nationalism could assert itself with success. 

The actual establishment of the English church occupies an 
important part of the story of four reigns, those of Henry VIII, 
Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. The facts are related with 
substantial agreement in the general histories of the state 
and the church. The student should examine carefully the 
following: the significance of Henry's participation in the 
controversy with Luther, of the divorce from Catharine and 
the marriage with Anne Boleyn, of the fall of Wolsey and the 
substitution of Cranmer as clerical councilor and Cromwell as 
civil councilor, and of the appeal to the House of Commons; 
the constitutional changes effected through the successive 
acts of Parliament that finally broke all connection with the 
papacy and made the king the head of the church in England ; 
the limited extent to which the reform in doctrine, order, 
ritual, and morals went; the effect on England's relations 
with Scotland. 

The work of Reformation under Edward is significant on 
account of the closer relations it brought with the Protestants 
of the Continent, as respects doctrine especially, and the 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 399 

reactionary feeling caused by the selfish and blundering 
policies of the young king's advisers. This facilitated the 
restoration of the papal authority under Mary. Her perse- 
cution of Protestants and the revulsion it produced in the 
English mind is a matter of great moment to the student 
of English history, because it brings out a contrast with 
the common acceptance, on the Continent, of the idea 
that death penalties were the normal punishment for 
heresy. (Note that the Inquisition had never been estab- 
lished in England.) The humiliating character of Mary's 
foreign policy, the coolness of the papacy toward her govern- 
ment, and the unwillingness of the English people as repre- 
sented in their Commons to restore the property of the 
despoiled monasteries and the other papal revenues tended 
to confirm the pubHc mind in the belief that the good of the 
nation lay in the Protestant direction. 

The accession of Elizabeth introduced the glorious period 
of English history. The points of importance up to 157 1 are: 
the personal views and policy of the queen, the restoration of 
the royal supremacy, the subjection of the ecclesiastical 
authority to the secular, the adoption of the Thirty-nine 
Articles as the rule of doctrine, the revision of the Book of 
Common Prayer prepared during Edward's reign, the estab- 
lishment of episcopacy as the form of the internal government 
of the church, the rejection of Puritanism, and the passing 
of the Act of Uniformity in religion. The autcome of these 
measures is to be traced through all the subsequent history of 
the English people. 

There are many subjects that call for special investigation, 
such as the economic interests that affected the course of the 
movement, the extent to which the English Reformation was 
at bottom political, the influence of Continental Protestantism 
on the doctrines of the English church, the translations of 
the Bible and their effect on the life of the religious leaders 
and people at the time, the degree to which the Reformation 



400 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

fostered the spirit of liberty, the reason why the Protestantism 
of England became the most prolific in dissent among all 
the Protestant churches by law established. 

Literature. — ^A few of the most valuable works to be consulted are 
herewith mentioned. A thorough and original study of the English 
Reformation requires an examination of the English State papers of the 
period. The publications of the Parker Society have preserved the 
works of many of the leaders, such as Bishops Hooper, Coverdale, Latimer, 
Ridley, and Jewel, Archbishop Cranmer, and William Tyndale. Strype's 
Memorials and Annals preserve contemporary accounts from the Protes- 
tant point of view. So does Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Gee and Hardy, 
Documents Illustrative of English Church History (London: Macmillan, 
1896), is valuable, and so is Burnet's History of the Reformation, critical ed. 
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1865). Froude's History of England (Lon- 
don: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1870) contains an elaborate account of 
the Reformation. Geikie's and Clark's histories of the Anglican Refor- 
mation are more summary. Gairdner, The English Church of the Six- 
teenth Century (London: Macmillan, 1902),. is more recent. F. A. 
Gasquet, in The Eve of the Reformation (London: Bell, 1905) and 
Henry VIII and the English Monasteries, 6th ed. (London: Hodges, 
1902), gives the Roman Catholic view of the movement. Most of the 
works referred to concern also the later period of the Reformation, to 
be treated below. 

VI. THE ANABAPTIST REFORMATION 

The significance of the name Anabaptist or Rebaptiser 
is of essential importance, for it creates the impression that 
the people referred to laid special stress on baptism, while 
the reverse is nearer the truth. The clue to the derogatory 
sense in which the word was commonly used and to the bitter 
attitude assumed toward these people is found in the Roman 
Catholic view of baptism and in the sympathy with that view 
on the part of the orthodox Protestant churches. The name 
Anabaptist is indicative of a thoroughly radical form of 
Protestantism, if it can be called Protestantism, and of an 
apparently anarchical tendency. Hence there is no move- 
ment of Reformation times that is better suited to give the 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 401 

student help at the beginning toward an insight into the 
character of the forces at work then. 

Literature. — ^In the earlier histories little justice was done to the 
Anabaptists, but recent historians have made ample, though late, 
amends. The interest in the movement has become deep and wide- 
spread, especially in Germany and among the more radical Christian 
thinkers of the present. For the best one-volume account the student 
is advised to read A History of Anti-Paiedobaptism by A. H. Newman 
(Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1907), and to consult the 
extensive bibliography it gives. The short chapter on Anabaptism 
in Lindsay, History of the Reformation, Vol. II (New York: Scribner, 
1907), is typical of the appreciative view of many today. 

The following suggestions are offered as to the lines of 
investigation to be followed: 

1. The affiliations of the Anabaptist movement. — ^Among 
these are the evangelical or dissenting parties of mediaeval 
times, such as the Petrobruscians, the Henricians, the Poor 
Men, the Waldenses, the Lollards; there are the mediaeval 
and later struggles for economic and social reform or revolu- 
tion following upon the Crusades and issuing in peasants' 
wars, especially in Central Europe, of which the one that broke 
out shortly after Luther's breach with Rome was very closely 
related to the rapid spread of Anabaptism that came quickly 
afterward; there are the affiliations with the spirit of intel- 
lectual liberty in the Renaissance which produced a left wing 
of Anabaptists; there are, finally, the affiliations with the 
great reforming movements whose course has been indicated. 
The student may ask himself whether it was not the con- 
sciousness on the part of the ''Reformers" that the Ana- 
baptists were carrying their own principles to a natural but 
unwelcome conclusion that led them to denounce Anabaptism 
and to repress it as dangerous to the state-church systems 
that sought to combat Catholicism with secular support. 

2. The different directions in which Anabaptism tended 
to develop.- — Note especially the thoroughgoing individualism 
that was so strongly marked in them all: (a) mysticism, 



402 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

growing into pantheism on the one side after the manner of 
the later Franciscans and the Brethren of the Free Spirit, 
with such prominent instances as David Joris and Heinrich 
Nicolaes; or (b) mysticism flaming up into '^prophetism/' as 
in the case of the Zwickau prophets that gave Luther so much 
trouble; or, again, (c) millenarianism under leaders like Nich- 
olas Storch, Melchior Hoffmann, or Bernhard Rothmann, cul- 
minating in the Miinster tragedy; or, again, (d) the prevailing 
type of the Swiss Anabaptists, with their insistence on religious 
liberty, free churches, spirituality even beyond biblicism, and 
a sane and healthy view of the state as necessary but distinct 
from the church, represented by such men as Balthasar Hub- 
maier, George Blaurock, Conrad Grebel, and John Denck; 
or, once more, (e) the Anabaptists of the left wing, who 
developed a rationalism that was but slightly permeated with 
the deep religious spirit that characterized the last mentioned 
and whose great representatives are the Italians Camillo 
Renato, George Biandrata, the Socini, and, perhaps, the 
Spaniard Servetus. 

3. The principal tenets of the Anabaptists. — The follow- 
ing points are significant: (a) the immediacy of the indi- 
vidual's relations with God, carrying with it the rejection 
of all ecclesiastical authority and legalism in religion, all 
priestly mediation or sacramental efhcacy; (b) the pure 
spirituality of the Christian religion, carrying with it the 
renunciation of any external form of organization, ritual, or 
confession of faith as essential to salvation; {c) the freedom 
and spontaneity of the Christian spirit, carrying with it 
the subordination of the ''outer word" of God to the 
''inner word" of religious liberty, and supremacy over enact- 
ments of moral law; (d) voluntarism in religion, carrying with 
it the rejection of the Augustinian doctrine of original sin 
and the associated doctrines and ecclesiastical practices and, 
on the other hand, emphasis on the saving quality of truly 
good works; (e) the necessity of reproducing primitive 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 403 

Christianity in order to obtain a religion pure from the cor- 
ruptions that had accumulated in the intervening period — 
hence their depreciatory view of the history of the church and 
their democracy; (/) the essence of Christianity found in the 
life of likeness to Jesus Christ — -hence their interest in the 
New Testament and comparative disregard for the Old Testa- 
ment and their substitution of the Gospels for the Pauline 
writings as the chief source of Christian truth; (g) little 
emphasis on ecclesiastical organization, with democracy or 
in places a tendency toward Presbyterian organization, and 
with a consistent rejection of all alliance with the civil power. 
In the study of the working of their views in Reformation times 
the student will be able to orient himself with regard to 
important religious and theological movements of later times. 

4. The propagation and outcome of the Anabaptist Refor- 
mation in the times of the Protestant revolution. — Notice in 
this connection the spread of Anabaptism throughout West- 
ern Europe from Poland to Scandinavia and the British 
Isles; the treatment the Anabaptists received in each of the 
countries included in this territory, and the attitude of 
Lutherans, Zwinglians, Calvinists, and Anglicans, not omitting 
to notice the instances of broader views on the part of some 
rulers ; their behavior under persecution and the nevertheless 
terrible effects of this persecution on the whole character of 
Protestantism, the tragedy of the uprising at Miinster, the 
sweeping condemnation of them on account of it, and the 
rescue of the remnant of and perpetuation of quiet Anabap- 
tism through the statesmanship of Menno Simons. 

5. The relation of Anabaptism to the Baptist, Arminian, 
and Quaker movements of the later Protestant period. — 
This will bring the student into an intimate knowledge of the 
struggle between state-churchism and Free-churchism in 
England, Holland, and America. 

Literature. — ^For a knowledge of the relation of the Anabaptists to 
the social and economic influences of the time one would do well to read 



404 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

the popularly written works of E. Belfort Bax on ''The Social Side of the 
Reformation in Germany," mainly his German Society at the Close of the 
Middle Ages (London: Sonnenschein, 1894); The Peasants^ War in Ger- 
many (New York: Macmillan, 1899); and the Rise and Fall of the Ana- 
baptists (New York: Macmillan, 1903). R. Wolkan, in Die Lieder der 
Wiedertdufer (Berlin: Behr, 1903), gives an inside view of the piety of 
the Anabaptists. The recent work of J. Horsch entitled Menno Simons: 
His Life, Labours, and Teaching (Mennonite Publishing House, Scott- 
dale, Pa., 1916), has valuable data for the European Mennonites. 
The life of Balthasar Hubmaier, the highest type of the Anabaptists, 
is written by H. C. Vedder (New York, 1903). See Carl Sachsse, 
Balthasar Hubmaier als Theolog (Berlin: Trowitzsch, 19 14). The 
Mennonitish literature is extensive, but apart from the translation 
into English in 187 1 (New York: Mennonite Pub. Soc.) from the original 
Dutch of the complete works of Menno the works in English give but 
brief sketches of early Mennonitism and devote their attention mainly 
to the Mennonites of America. In the histories of the Baptists by 
Crosby, History' of the English Baptists (London, 1738); Joseph Ivimey, 
A History of the English Baptists (London, 18 11); and John Evans, A 
Brief Sketch of the Several Denominations into Which the World Is Divided 
(London, 1795), and in the publications of the Hanserd Knollys Library, 
there is considerable original material reflecting Anabaptist influence. 
See also Strype, Annals of the Reformation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 
1824), and Ecclesiastical Memorials (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1822). 

VII. THE BEGINNING OF THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE 
PROTESTANT SYSTEMS 

If the student were to seek an approximate date for the 
establishment of Protestant state-church systems in general, 
he would find the year 1560 suitable. Let him note the dates 
for the Treaty of Augsburg; for the recognized supremacy 
of Calvin in Geneva; for the first French national synod 
of the Reformed church and the Galilean Confession; for the 
restoration of the royal supremacy in England, the Act of 
Uniformity, the revision of the Prayer Book, and the adoption 
of the Thirty-nine Articles; for the adoption of the Scotch 
Confession, the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, 
and of that most popular of all the Protestant confessions, 
the Second Helvetic. We may say, therefore, that about 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 405 

1560, with Anabaptism destroyed, Protestantism was organ- 
ized and fully armed to realize its hope of supremacy in 
Christendom. The story of the failure of this hope reads 
almost like a tragedy. 

Some pertinent questions. — It is fitting that at this point 
such questions as the following should be raised: Were the 
state churches or church-states truly organic to the Protestant 
spirit? Was the basis of membership in the Protestant 
churches a compromise between the new spirit and the founda- 
tion principles of the Roman church ? Were the demands for 
acceptance of the confessions in harmony with the spirit of 
free inquiry that awoke in the Renaissance and prepared 
the way for the Reformation? Were the very methods of 
Protestant theology, and especially the methods of interpret- 
ing the Scriptures, consistent with the spirit of religious faith, 
or did they represent an inharmonious combination of Catholi- 
cism and religious individualism ? Our present study con- 
cerns itself with the beginning of the movements that supply 
an answer to these questions. 

The controversies between Dissenters and Churchmen in 

England, partly preserved in- such collections as the Hanserd KnoUys 
Library; Strype's Annals of the Reformation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 
1824), and Ecclesiastical Memorials (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1822); 
^tdX?> History of the Puritans (London: Tegg, 1837), or Gardiner's Cow- 
stitutional Documents Illustrative of the Puritan Revolution or the contro- 
versies that gathered about the Arminian movement and the Synod 
of Dort in Holland, indicate how quickly it was perceived that the 
Establishment in these countries failed to meet the conscience of large 
numbers of Protestants. Harnack, in his History of Dogma, Vol. VII, 
under the title "The Issue of. Dogma in Protestantism," gives a valu- 
able estimate of the doctrinal decisions from the Ritschlian point of view. 

The grafting of the Protestant ecclesiastico-political 
systems on the Protestant estimate of the worth of the indi- 
vidual man and its conviction of the immediacy of his relations 
with God seemed to necessitate either a return toward 
Catholicism or a development of a radical Free-churchism 



4o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

and democracy in religion, science, church, and state. These 
two tendencies soon appeared in great force. They indicate 
the two main contrary movements in the history of post- 
Reformation Christendom. The first of these tendencies 
is seen in what is known as the Counter-Reformation in the 
CathoHc church. It merits attention here because- of its 
influence on Protestantism. 

A. THE EFFECT OF THE COUNTER -REFORMATION ON THE 
COURSE OF PROTESTANTISM 

The reason for the Counter-Reformation. — The first step 
in this study is to discover how there came to be a Counter- 
Reformation. The answer is partly indicated in the life and 
work of such men as Erasmus of Rotterdam, the most eminent 
European scholar of the times ; of John Colet, the scholar and 
churchman who wrought so zealously for the application of 
the methods of the New Learning to the interpretation of the 
New Testament, and of Thomas More, the scholar-statesman, 
both of Oxford, and both zealous for reform in religion, educa- 
tion, and morals, but both, like Erasmus, hoping that the 
change would come from within the church and not by the 
disruption of it; of Gaspero Contarini, the moderate and 
broad-minded Italian cardinal, and the religious association 
known as the Oratory of Divine Love in Italy; of Cardinal 
Ximines and his co-religionists in Spain. These men are 
representatives of a large number of men of high character 
found in many parts of Europe who strongly demanded a 
reformation in the inner life and government of the church, 
but whose reverence for the idea of the unity of the church and 
for its embodiment in the Catholic church and whose dread of 
revolution and the violent uprising of democracy prevented 
them from joining the Reformers in making an outward breach 
in the Catholic church. When the breach actually came it 
tended, for a time at least, to accentuate their demands and to 
lead to an actual moral reform within the church. The move 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 407 

for a doctrinal reform met with much less response from within 
the church. 

Literature bearing on the Counter-Reformation is partly to be found 
in the extensive works on the Renaissance. Paul Van Dyke, Age of the 
Renaissance (New York: Scribner, 1897), gives a summary statement; 
Jacob Burckhart, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, English 
translation (London, Sonnenschein, 1890); Symonds, The Renaissance in 
Italy, volume entitled The Catholic Reaction (New York: Henry Holt & 
Co., 1887), are more elaborate. The shorter works bearing directly 
on the Counter-Reformation worthy of special attention are: Seebohm, 
The Oxford Reformers (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1887), in 
which the work of Colet, Erasmus, and More is extolled. A. Ward, 
The Counter -Reformation (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1889), 
gives a summary account of the whole movement. Lindsay, History of the 
Reformation, II, 501 ff. (New York: Scribner, 1907), furnishes an admi- 
rable sketch. Special attention may be given to the reforms attempted 
by Popes Hadrian VI and Paul III. The following may also be consulted : 
Ranke, Die romischen Pdpste, ihre Kirche und ihr Staat in den i6ten und 
lyten Jahrhunderten (Berlin: Duncker, 1854-57; English translation. 
History of the Popes [London: Bell, 1866]); Dupin, Histoire de Veglise du 
16^ siecle (Paris, 1 701-13); English translation. New Ecclesiastical His- 
tory of the Sixteenth Century [London, 1703]); Philippson, La Contre- 
Reformation religieuse du id® .wec/e (Brussels: Muquardt, Paris: Alcan, 
1884). 

It should be noted that these Catholic reformers had more 
confidence in the secular government as an instrument for 
improvement than in the papacy. The student will trace 
the division in the Catholic ranks on this point, the conflict 
between Emperor Charles V and the papacy, the temporary 
ascendency of the party that sought to conciliate the Protes- 
tants by attempting a doctrinal compromise, the abortive 
effort at the conference at Regensburg (Ratisbon) in 154 1, with 
Contarini leading the Catholics and Melanchthon the Protes- 
tants, the inevitable split on the question of transubstan- 
tiation, the disappointment of the emperor and his belated 
attempt to take action on a doctrinal question in the publica- 
tion of the famous '^ Interim" without consulting the pope. 



4o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

The reaction after Ratisbon put the miHtant Catholicism of 
the Spanish type, with Cardinal Caraffa, later Pope Paul IV, as 
their leader, in control. Before long there appeared a mili- 
tant Calvinism leading the Protestants and a militant Jesu- 
itism leading the Catholic reactionaries. The immediate 
outcome is best seen in the calling of the so-called Ecumenical 
Council of Trent and the formation of the Society of Jesus. 
The effect of these Catholic movements on the succeeding his- 
tory of Protestantism has been so great as to entitle them to 
special consideration. 

I. The Society of Jesus and its influence in the early 
history of Protestantism: The inner nature of Jesuitism. — 
The first step toward an understanding of the Jesuit order and 
its doings is a sympathetic knowledge of the career and spirit- 
ual experiences of its founder, the Spanish knight Inigo de 
Recalde de Loyola, better known, through his renunciation of 
knightly dignity and his assumption of the name of St. 
Ignatius, as Ignatius Loyola. The following events are note- 
worthy: his early military crusading career; its termination 
by a crippling wound; his retirement, wholly in accordance 
with the Catholic monastic ideal, to meditation; his striking 
religious experiences, so much like Luther's and yet so differ- 
ent in their ultimate direction; his devotion to a vain effort 
to evangelize the Turks ; his studies at Paris ; his organization 
of the new monastic order in 1534; and his success, in 1540, 
after earlier disappointments, in obtaining the papal recog- 
nition. Note the names of the other nine constituent members 
(nearly all of them Spaniards or Portuguese) , especially Francis 
Xavier, the most famous next to Loyola, and trace the story 
of their personal achievements. 

Such questions as the following are hereby suggested: 
the relation of Jesuitism to the mediaeval crusading spirit; 
its embodiment of Spanish militant Catholicism; its likeness 
to and contrast with earlier monastic orders; its value to 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 409 

the student as an interpretation of the true character of 
Roman CathoHcism. 

The next step is an analysis and interpretation of the inner 
nature of the Jesuit movement. For this a thorough examina- 
tion of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises is indispensable. Note 
the intensity of the psychic processes resorted to, the keen 
insight into the relation between physical and psychical 
conditions, the attempt to control the will through the 
imagination, the lurid character of many of the forms of the 
latter, the emphasis on training rather than culture, the su- 
preme place of the obligation of unquestioning obedience, 
the aim to develop ultimately a perfectly effective mechanism. 

Growing out of this is a view of the system of organization 
of the Jesuits and its relation to the existent ecclesiastical 
order, of the conflicts within Catholicism growing out of its 
pretensions and its aim to control the entire policy of the 
Catholic church, of its conscientious subordination of moral 
standards to this one end of making Catholicism, according 
to the Jesuit interpretation of it, absolute in the world. 
Note tlie strict limitation of the privileges of membership to 
the truly competent, the slow advancement through the 
successive degrees, the small number of Jesuits at any time, 
the methods of operation, many of them unscrupulous and 
clandestine, their absolute intolerance and pitilessness toward 
Protestants. A Jesuitized Catholic church would seem to be 
an irresistible military power. 

Propaganda. — ^A further step is the tracing of the course 
of the Jesuit propaganda. The disintegration of Protestant- 
ism at the hands of Jesuitism is remarkable. Note how the 
basic principle of the Peace of Augsburg, Cujus regio, ejus 
religio, exposed the Lutheran state churches in particular 
to their attack. Hence the attempts to convert princes, 
the special interest in the growing boy-princes, the attempt 
to control the schools, the institution of Jesuit colleges 



4IO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

in many lands, and the mastery of colleges already in exist- 
ence. Finally, note the successive revolutions, the religious 
wars, and their outcome. The student will note the Jesuit 
influence in the colleges and universities at Ingoldstadt, 
Cologne, Vienna, Prague, Douay, Rome, Lyons, Briinn. 
He will trace their success in Hungary, Poland, Moravia, 
Siebenburgen, Upper Austria, Southern Germany, Belgium, 
where Protestants had had a powerful hold, and in Spain, 
Italy, Portugal, and France, where there had been hope of a 
reformation, and particularly in the terrible struggle in 
Holland. He will observe how Protestantism had to fight for 
its very existence, even where it had been strongly established. 
The story of the desolating Thirty Years' War reflects the 
culmination of the early work of the Jesuits. 

It will be well to notice in this connection the contrast 
between the Lutheran countries and the countries under 
the influence of Calvinism with its more vigorous moral fiber. 
It would seem that but for the latter Protestantism might 
have been extingu'shed. The Peace of Westphalia, syn- 
chronous with the beheading of Charles I of England, marks 
the failure of the Protestant ecclesiastico-political settlement 
as wefl as of the Jesuit poHcy to dominate Europe.' 

Literature on this subject is extremely extensive. Much of it is con- 
troversial, and not a little of uncertain value, because of the secrecy of 
the Jesuit order and its habit of denying the authenticity of what is 
afhrmed concerning its inner character and methods. Collections of 
materials for a general study of the Counter-Reformation are of value 
in the study of Jesuitism as sources, such as those made by Laemmer, 
Monumenta Vaticana historiam ecclesiasticam saec. xvi illustrantia 
(Freiburg: Herder, 1861); and Weiss, Papiers d'etat du cardinal de 
Granville, etc. (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1841-52). The Exercitia 
Spiritualia composed by Loyola, partly based on Thomas a Kempis' 
Imitatio Christi, are indispensable. They may be found in an English 
translation by Charles Seager (London : Dolman, 1 849) . Regulae Soc. Jesu 
(London, 1604) and Secrela Monita Soc. Jesu (Latin and English, Balti- 
more, 1835) may be used, with hesitancy, owing to questions of genuine- 
ness. Dollingcr und Reusch, Geschichte der Moralstreitigkeiten, etc. 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 411 

(Miinchen: Beck, 1889); Beusch, Der Index der verbotenen Biicher 
(Bonn: Cohen, 1883); Cardinal Bellarmine, Opera Omnia (1620), give 
full material for an acquaintance with the controversies of early Jesuit- 
ism. A compendium of the last mentioned, by J. de La Serviere, under 
the title La Theologie de Bellarmine (Paris, 1909), is invaluable for the 
average student who knows French. Histories of Jesuitism by Chem- 
nitz, Theologiae Jesuitarum brevis ac nervosa descriptio et delineation 
2d ed. (Frankfurt and Wittenberg, 1690), London, 1848; and by 
Taunton, History of the Jesuits in England (London: Methuen, 1901); 
examinations of their educational methods by Cartwright, The Jesuits, 
Their Constitution and Teaching (London: Murray, 1876), and by 
Thomas Hughes, Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits (New 
York: Scribner, 1899), and the terrible arraignment of their principles 
by Pascal in his Provincial Letters, should be read. 

2. The Council of Trent: the effect of its canons and 
decrees. — The calling of the so-called Ecumenical Council 
of Trent was the natural sequel to the failure at Ratisbon and 
marked the reaction toward a stern and intolerant antagonism 
against Protestantism. There are three outstanding facts 
to be noted at the outset : first, the place of assembly, a city in 
Austrian territory, a Catholic city, but under imperial author- 
ity, indicating the continuance of the strife between emperor 
and pope, with the failure of the repeated attempts of the 
pope to change the place of meeting ; secondly, the time, lasting 
from 1548 to 1563, the most critical time in the history of 
early Protestantism, with both Protestants and Catholics 
laying down fixed policies; thirdly, the dominance, as above 
described, of the reactionary party in the sessions of the 
Council, and the disappearance presently of the Protestants 
from the Council. This issued in making the aim of the 
Council to be the vindication of mediaevalism and the con- 
demnation of Protestantism. 

The student will observe that the question of the primacy 
of the two principal demands to be met, namely, whether the 
interest of the church as an institution, or the moral and reli- 
gious longings of the time, should receive first attention, and 
the decision in favor of the former, were fateful. He will be 



412 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

able to estimate the value of the doctrinal canons and decrees 
in that light, the aim being to condemn the enemy rather than 
to enlighten the world. The polemical purpose is clear. 

Note, next, the immediate achievements of the Council: 
First, it gained the credit of stating the Catholic doctrine fully 
and of vindicating its claim to be the sole Christian expression 
of faith. To understand these canons and decrees the student 
must master the political and intellectual situation. Secondly, 
it gained credit for moral reform by pronouncements against 
some evils then current in the church. The Catholic church 
appeared as the custodian of morals. Thirdly, the Council 
distinctly shaped the policy of the church in the direction of 
Curialism and Vaticanism. Note the following facts: the 
presence of Jesuit theologians in the Council as the special 
representatives of the papacy; the decision that the initiative 
in all reforms lies with the pope and cardinals and not with 
secular authorities; the leaving of final interpretation of the 
canons and decrees with the pope. 

The revival of Roman Catholicism that foUawed the action 
of the Council may be traced in the attempts of Charles V to 
enforce rigorously the earlier decisions of the Council in the 
Netherlands and in the stiU more ruthless work of his son 
Philip II in the Netherlands and Spain; in the fearful wars of 
religion in the Low Countries, in France, and on the seas 
between England and Spain, with their tremendous results 
religiously and politically; in the reconquest (referred to in the 
study of Jesuitism) of vast regions from Protestantism, in the 
continuation of the mediaeval mind in Roman Catholicism, 
and in the culmination of Catholic ecclesiasticism in the papal 
decree of infallibility in 1870. 

The effect on the inner life and thought of Protestant- 
ism is not to be overlooked in this connection — the accen- 
tuation of the controversial spirit, the hardening of Protestant 
faith into fixed dogma, and the fresh impetus given by reaction 
to the radical tendencies already operative in the Protestant 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 413 

communities (to be treated in what follows) . The organiza- 
tion and papal recognition of the Jesuit order and the meeting 
of the Council of Trent may be regarded as the two acts that 
went to create an unbridgeable chasm between Romanism and 
Protestantism and permanently divided Western Christendom 
into two warring camps by bringing into clear consciousness 
the irreconcilable antagonism in fundamental principle. 

Literature. — There is an enormous amount of material for a study 
of the Council of Trent. For an extended study the following sources 
should be consulted: Mansi, Collectio amplissima Conciliorum, Vol. 
XXXIII (Paris: Welter), Vol. X (Paris: Harduin, 1715). On the 
Council of Trent consult Le Plat, Amplissima Collectio, etc., Vols. I- 

VII (Paris, 1781-87); Sarpi, Istoria del concilio Tridentino; English 
translation from Italian, History of the Council of Trent (London, 1676) ; 
also Historia delV Inquisizione, translated into English by GentUis, The 
History of the Inquisition (London, 1639). On creeds and confessions see 
Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. II (New York: Harper, 1877); 
W. H. Curtis, A History of Creeds and Confessions of Faith in Christen- 
dom and Beyond (Edinburgh: Clark, 191 1); Winer, Comparative Dar- 
stellung der Lehrhegrife der verschiedenen christlichen Kirchenparteien 
(Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1882; English translation, A View of Doctrines and 
Confessions of Christendom [London: Simpkin, 1887]); Waterworth, 
Canons and Decrees of the Sacred Ecumenical Council of Trent (London : 
Dolman, 1848); also accounts by Dollinger, Beitrdge zur politischen, 
kirchlichen und Kulturgeschichte der sechs letzten Jahrhunderte, Vol. 

VIII (Regensburg: Mainz, 1862-82); DuBose, The Ecumenical Councils 
(New York: Christian Literature Co., 1896); Harnack, History of Doc- 
trine, Vol. VII; Froude, Lectures on the Council of Trent (London: 
Longmans, Green, & Co., 1898); and Littledale, A Short History of the 
Council of Trent (New York: Gorham, 1888). A succinct summary of 
the reforms of the Council is given by Newman, Manual of Church 
History, II, 360 ff. (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1903). 

For an adequate view of the papal Inquisition the student should 
become familiar with the great work of Henry C. Lea on the Inquisition of 
the Middle Ages (New York: Macmillan, 1906), which has been followed 
by his History of the Inquisition in Spain (New York: Macmillan, 1907). 
See also histories of the Inquisition by Rule, History of the Inquisition, 
(London: Hamilton, 1874); Lavalee, Histoire des Inquisitions, etc. 
(Paris, 1809) ; Shafer, Beitrdge zur Geschichte des spanischen Protestantis- 
mus, etc. (Gutersloh: Bertelsmann, 1906). For the history of the 



414 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Roman church's Indexes read Putnam, The Censorship of the Church of 
Rome and Its Influence upon the Production and Distribution of Literature 
(New York: Putnam, 1906). Among the various collections of Indexes 
that have appeared that of Reusch, Der Index der verbotenen BUcher 
(Bonn: Cohen, 1885), is considered of extreme value. 

The story of the religious wars that issued from these ecclesiastical 
conflicts pertains largely to political and economic history, but nierits 
the close attention of the student of church history. In this connection 
the following are important: Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic 
(New York: Harper, 1867) ; Baird, History of the Rise of the Huguenots of 
France (New York: Scribner, 1879), ^^^ ^^^ Huguenots and Henry of Na- 
varre (New York: Scribner, 1886); Thompson, The Wars of Religion in 
France (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909) ; and Gardiner, 
The Thirty Years' War (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1875). 

B. UNDERMINING OF PROTESTANT ORTHODOXY BY INTELLECTUALISM 

The Reformation released intellectual forces that had 
been held in leash more or less successfully by Catholicism 
but were increasing in power and contributed, as we have 
seen, to the Protestant movement. It was to be expected 
that the free spirits that shared in the joy of the New Learn- 
ing should resent the restraint upon free thought which issued 
from the establishment of state churches. The struggle for a 
larger freedom may be regarded as twofold, according as 
the interests of intellectual liberty or the interests of religious 
liberty were mainly cherished. Though the two phases are 
closely allied, it will be profitable for the student to examine 
them, as far as possible, separately. 

The first of these stands in relation with the speculations 
of John Duns Scotus, with the Renaissance and its love for 
unlimited inquiry, and with the prevailing individualism of the 
early stages of the Reformation itself. It will be profitable to 
distinguish three different lines along which opposition of 
an intellectual character arose from within Protestantism 
against the established forms of belief: first, the direct 
attack of rationahstic criticism; secondly, the reaction against 
the doctrinal controversies among Protestant theologians; 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 415 

thirdly, the discrediting of orthodoxy through the progress 
of scientific knowledge. Each of these is worthy of prolonged 
study. 

I. The direct attack of^ rationalistic criticism. — The 
student will note the countries in which it was most active — 
especially Italy, Poland, and, in a lesser degree, France and 
Spain — and judge how far they had participated in the deeper 
religious spirit of the Reformation. He will note also the 
connection of some of the leaders with Calvinism and judge 
how far this rationalism was a natural outcome of Calvinism. 
He will examine particularly the economic, political, and 
spiritual situation in Poland, the movement of Italian reform- 
ers to Poland, and the connection between Polish Anti- 
paedobaptists and the Antipaedobaptists of Holland and 
England. 

The following names attract special attention: Camillo 
Renato, Tiziano, and Pietro Manelfi in Italy. The disclosures 
to the Papal Inquisition by the last, supply the basis of our 
knowledge of the Italian churches of this type. A summary 
is given by Newman, History of Antipaedobaptism, pp. 327 f. 
This takes us only to the middle of the sixteenth century. 
Among the Italians who migrated to Poland, Peter Gonesius, 
George Biandrata, Laelius Socinus, and Faustus Socinus are 
the most important. 

The most valuable statement of the views that were held by 
the churches of Poland that followed the teachings of the 
Socini is found in the Racovian Catechism. This work 
exhibits the views of the Unitarian churches which the 
younger Socinus united in one body. It sets forth their 
methods of doctrinal formulation, and their views in detail, 
with great ability. It deserves minute study as the principal 
rationalistic polemic of the earlier days against Protestant 
orthodoxy. The influence of this polemic is to be traced all 
through later Protestantism. An indication of its early 
impression is found in the reply which the great Dutch jurist, 



4i6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Hugo Grotius, made to the Socinian objections to the ortho- 
dox doctrine of atonement. It is very significant that in 
order to confute them he had to meet them halfway and to 
reject the substitutionary view on the very ground urged 
by them — that it was neither according to reason nor taught 
in the Scriptures. 

This carries us to the attempt to rationalize Calvinism in 
Holland, known as Arminianism, from the name of its chief 
representative, James Arminius, the Calvinist theologian of 
Leyden. The study of Arminianism pertains more particu- 
larly to the next-following topic. 

Literature. — ^For the theological views of the Socinians the Racovian 
Catechism (originally written in 1590 and first published in 1609, 
with a historical introduction by Rees [London: Longmans, Green, & 
Co., 1 8 18]), is the most valuable work. The Bihliotheca Fratrum 
Polonorum (Amsterdam, 1656) preserves other documents. Foch, 
Der Socinianismus (Kiel: Schroder, 1847), is a standard history. 
The polemical literature is plentiful and extends into the nineteenth 
century. The work of Grotius is available in an English translation by 
F. H. Foster (Andover, 1889), Defence of the Catholic Faith concerning the 
Satisfaction of Jesus Christ against Faustus Socinus. J. Owen's works, 
Sceptics of the Italian Renaissance and Sceptics of the French Renaissance 
(London: Sonnenschein, 1893), may be read as introductory to a study 
of the whole rationalist movement. The interest in Servetus is indicated 
in the following: Punjer, De Michaeli Serveti Doctrina (Jena: Dufft, 
1876); E. ToUin, Das Lehrsystem Michael Servets (Giitersloh: Bertels- 
mann, 1876); Willis, Servetus and Calvin (London: King, 1877). 

2. Skeptical reaction caused by doctrinal controversies 
among the orthodox. — The doctrinal precipitations which 
appear in the confessions of the Protestant state churches 
were attempts to consolidate Protestantism before its religious 
spirit had thoroughly permeated the minds of the leaders. 
An outcome of this is to be seen in the rise of a Protestant 
scholasticism that viewed doctrinal statements as declaring 
saving truth in itself apart from the religious faith that 
grounds the truth. The efforts to systematize these doctrines 
provoked opposition and exasperating controversies. Space 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 417 

forbids reference to these in detail. For convenience the 
principal disputes may be arranged under the following heads : 
{a) controversies among Lutherans; {h) controversies between 
Lutherans and Calvinists; {c) controversies of Calvinism in 
the Netherlands; {d) controversies of Calvinism in England. 

Literature. — The standard works on church history give a general 
account, the best being that of Newman, Manual of Church History, 
II, 307-35, 4th ed. (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1903). 
Pertinent articles in religious encyclopedias may be consulted. Among 
the histories of doctrine see Fisher, History of Christian Doctrine, Part III, 
chaps, vii and viii (New York: Scribner, 1896), but more particularly 
Dorner, Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie, pp. 330-420 (Miinchen: 
Oldenburg, 1867). 

a) Controversies among Lutherans. — The following pro- 
visional classification may serve as a guide: First, contro- 
versies concerning faith, (i) in relation to law and good works, 
(ii) in relation to justification, sanctification, and the mystical 
participation in the divine nature of Christ. The following 
disputants merit especial attention: Philip Melanchthon, 
John Agricola, Georg Major, Nicholas Armsdorf, Andrias 
Osiander, Francis Stancarus, Martin Chemnitz, and Flacius. 
Secondly, controversies respecting the person of Christ, or, 
more especially, respecting the Lutheran idea of the commu- 
nication of idioms, or the mutual real participation of the hu- 
man and divine nature in Christ. Here again the name of 
Chemnitz figures, and also the names of James Andreas and 
Brenz, Balthazar Munzer, et aL The Formula of Concord, 
1576 and 1584, which attempted to mediate and settle the 
disputes by prescribing articles on original sin, free will, the 
righteousness of faith before God, good works, law and gospel, 
the Lord's Supper, the person of Christ, etc., should be care- 
fully studied. See Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, III, 93 ff. 

b) Controversies between Lutherans and Calvinists. — These 
include, besides the earlier disputes between Lutherans and 
reformed theologians referred to in the first division of our 



41 8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

study, the later controversies which arose from the influence 
of Calvinism on certain Lutheran theologians. They stand 
closely related to the controversies among Lutherans noted 
above. The most notable of these is known as the Crypto- 
Calvinist controversy, which concerns the question of the 
real or spiritual presence of Christ in the elements of the 
Supper. Of special importance here is the growing Cal- 
vinistic tendency of Melanchthon. The question of pre- 
destination also figured in the controversies. For a temporary 
doctrinal outcome read the Saxon Visitation Articles, 1592, in 
Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, III, 181 ff. The disputes in 
the nature of the case were interminable. 

c) Controversies among Calvinists in the Netherlands. — 
These are of special importance because, first, in the ultimate 
adjudication of them the entire Reformed church was invited 
to participate; secondly; because the Arminian theology out 
of which they partly sprang has continued in powerful influence 
to the present. 

The Arminian controversy, like most theological con- 
troversies of the time, must be studied in relation to the 
political situation in the countries where the Reformed church 
was established, and particularly in Holland. Note, first, the 
traditional love and enjoyment of freedom among the Dutch; 
secondly, the influence of the Renaissance (Erasmus) there; 
thirdly, the vindication of Protestant liberty in the long war 
with Austria and Spain; fourthly, the presence of religious 
dissenters there; fifthly, the determination of Maurice of 
Nassau to turn the Dutch Republic into a monarchy, and 
the powerful opposition led by John of Barneveld. The 
strict Calvinists came into line with the monarchists, and the 
Arminians with the republicans. Each of these features of 
the situation demands close attention. 

Literature. — ^For an intimate knowledge of the situation in the 
Netheriands, especially on the political side, the great works of Motley 
should be studied: The Rise of the Dutch Republic (as above) ; History of 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 419 

the United Netherlands (New York: Harper, 1879); Life and Death of 
John of Barneveld (New York: Harper, 1870). 

The names and works of the leading theologians and of 
the great parties to the controversy should be familiar: for 
the Arminians, James Arminius, Hugo Grotius, Episcopius, 
Limborch; for the extreme Calvinists, Theodore Beza, John 
Piscator (who later became Arminian), and Gomarus. The 
^'Remonstrants" and ^'Contra-Remonstrants" and the ''five 
points" of Calvinism about which the controversy gathered 
reveal the two parties. 

Note the calling of the Synod of Dort (Dordrecht), the divi- 
sion of the Calvinists that comprised it into Supra-Lapsarians 
and Infra-Lapsarians, the canons adopted at the synod, and 
the persecution of the Arminians. Note finally the survival 
of Arminianism and its powerful influence in England during 
the time of the early Stuart kings. 

Literature. — The proceedings of the synod have been preserved in 
Latin. Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. Ill, gives the canons in full. 
The works of the Remonstrant theologians are accessible in Latin edi- 
tions, but those of Arminius are given in English translation by Nichols 
(London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1825). Grotius' Defence of the 
Catholic Faith has been translated by Foster (Andover, 1889). For a 
brief history of Arminianism read G. L. Curtiss, Arminianism in 
History (Cincinnati: Methodist Book Concern, 1894). 

d) Cahinist controversies in England. — The principal 
interest these have for us lies in their relation to the formation 
of separated bodies in England (for which see below). At 
this point we are concerned with the theological struggle 
between hyper-Calvinism and Arminianism (used, in a wide 
sense, of the moderate Protestant soteriology) . Its beginnings 
can be seen, perhaps, in the less severe Protestantism of the 
Thirty-nine Articles as compared with that of the Forty-two 
Articles. The actual controversy with historical Arminianism 
is to be seen in the Lambeth Articles composed by Whitaker. 
They may be read in Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. III. 



420 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

The later controversies with Arminianism can be traced 
in the politico-ecclesiastical struggle between the Puritan 
Parliament of England and the first two Stuart kings. The 
Commons believed that the growing Arminianism was at the 
bottom a subtle reaction toward a revived Catholicism. 

Literature. — See Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan 
Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889). Note, e.g., "The Resolu- 
tions on Religion," pp. 77 ff. ("the subtle and pernicious spreading of the 
Arminian faction," p. 79), "The Grand Remonstrance," pp. 202 ff., 
especially p. 207. The Westminster Confession of faith (Schaff, Creeds 
of Christendom, Vol. Ill) should be examined in this connection. 

In addition to the standard church histories the following are valu- 
able: Masson, Life of John Milton (London: Macmillan, 1875-80); 
W. H. Frere, The English Church in the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I 
(London: Macmillan, 1904) ; W. H. Hutton, The English Church from the 
Accession of Charles I to the Death of Anne (London: Macmillan, 1903). 

3. The discrediting of orthodoxy through the progress of 
scientific knowledge. — Protestantism owes its origin in part 
to the growth of the spirit of free discovery and enterprise. 
Yet it is plain to a student of the Protestant creeds that the 
claims there made to a knowledge of the higher realities, and 
the view of the world running through the creeds, disclose an 
inner opposition to the principles and methods as well as to 
the results already recognized by science. An open conflict 
was inevitable. 

The story of the conflict pertains to the history of science 
rather than to the history of the church, since it is generally at 
bottom a conflict between a newer and an antiquated science. 
The outstanding fact is the movement of science toward the 
postulating of the government of the universe by immanent 
''natural" law rather than by external control or arbitrary 
interference with the common order of fixed validity. The 
result was the creation of a distrust of those affirmations of 
the creeds which embodied unscientific views, and therewith 
the rise of a spirit of skepticism toward all claims of pos- 
session of any supernatural revelation whatsoever. Such a 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 421 

position undermined the church estabhshments that made 
these doctrines their basis of truth. 

Literature. — ^The whole subject has been treated at great length by 
A. D. White in A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in 
Christendom (New York: Appleton, 1896). A smaller work, in the 
"International Science Series," by J. W. Draper, History of the Conflict 
between Religion and Science (New York: Appleton, 1875), unhappily 
identifies religion and theology. The student may become acquainted 
with the growing consciousness of a purely scientific method by a knowl- 
edge of Francis Bacon's Novum Organum. 

The study of the skeptical reaction that followed in the 
wake of the Reformation carries us rather beyond the limits 
of our period. It embraces the rise of modern philosophy in 
its efforts to lay a new foundation for certainty by proceeding 
through doubt to empirical investigation and rational specula- 
tion, and more particularly the history of empiricism and 
deism in England, of the enlightenment in Germany, and of 
infidelity in France. 

Literature. — ^Lecky, History of Rationalism in Europe (London: 
Longmans, Green, & Co., 1867), and Hurst, History of Rationalism 
(Cincinnati: Methodist Book Concern, 1901), are good. One should 
consult the standard histories of philosophy, especially the portions of 
Windelband and Hoffding dealing with this subject. The old work of 
Leland, On the Deistical Writers (London, 1754-56), and Oman, The 
Problem of Faith and Freedom (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1906), 
are valuable, but a first-hand acquaintance with the writers of the period 
is indispensable to an appreciation of the movement. 

C. THREATENED DISSOLUTION OF THE PROTESTANT STATE CHURCHES 
THROUGH THE RISE OF THE FREE CHURCHES 

The struggle precipitated by the rise of the Free churches 
is to be contrasted in its inner character with the two forms of 
opposition to the Protestant establishments above discussed, 
in that, while the first (A) appeared to be mainly between rival 
forms of ecclesiasticism and concerned directly the lawyers and 
statesmen of the churches, and the second (B) appeared mainly 
as a protest from within Protestantism against the unnatural 



422 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

bonds placed by the Reformation church creeds upon the 
action of human intelKgence and concerned principally the 
intellectuals among the people, that now to be discussed 
related to a specifically religious interest and had its roots 
in the free spontaneous faith of the common people and, con- 
sequently, was more radical and comprehensive in its scope. 
The limitation of our study to the period of the Reformation 
confines our attention to the beginnings of the movement, 
which is still progressing. 

The first step in this study is to review the record of the 
origin and progress of those voluntaristic, individualistic, 
democratic religious groups or orders or communions that 
underlay much of the Reformation and persisted through 
its course, despite severe measures of repression taken by 
both Catholics and Protestants (see division I of this outline) . 
The tendency native to Protestantism, to create free churches, 
is to be noted; e.g., its insistence on using the Bible in the 
vernacular, its profession of the right of private judgment in 
religious matters, its nurture of a warm personal faith, its 
elevation of the laity to equahty with the clergy in religious 
and ecclesiastical affairs. Note further how the spirit of 
individual enterprise in the maritime Protestant countries 
co-operated in the same direction and prepared asylums for 
the spirit of religious liberty. 

Interest centers mainly in the English and Dutch people. 
Observe how the struggle with Spain had strengthened their 
mutual sympathy and developed intimate commercial, social, 
and political intercourse. It will be noticed how the religious 
radical when persecuted in one of these countries fled to the 
other or even to colonies across the sea — e.g., the Pilgrim 
Fathers of New England. 

Literature. — A very extensive literature has accumulated. The 
state papers of the countries concerned exhibit the steps taken by their 
governments and indicate to some extent the character of the dissenting 
movements. Foxe's Acts and Monuments (London, 1570-), Strype's An- 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 423 

nals of the Reformation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1824) and Ecclesiastical 
Memorials (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1822), works of the Reformers 
collected and edited by the Parker Society, and of the early Baptists 
collected and edited by the Hanserd KnoUys Society, are fundamental to 
a first-hand knowledge. To these may be added, among earlier works, 
Thomas Fuller, The Church History of Great Britain from the Birth of 
Jesus Christ until the Year 1648 (London: Hop ton, 1662) ; Jeremy Collier, 
An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, etc., recent edition (London: 
1852); Crosby, History of the English Baptists (London, 1738); John 
Evans, A Brief Sketch of the Several Denominations into Which the World 
Is Divided (London, 1795); Joseph Ivimey, A History of the English 
Baptists (London, 18 11); Neal's great History of the Puritans (London: 
Tegg, 1837). Recent works are numerous, but among them Dexter, 
Congregationalism as Seen in Its Literature (New York: Harper, 
1880); Walker, Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism (New York: 
Scribner, 1893) ; and McGlothlin, Baptist Confessions of Faith (Phila- 
delphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 191 1), are of much value. 
Newman, History of Antipaedohaptism (Philadelphia: American Bap- 
tist Pub. Soc, 1897), particularly the last three chapters, traces the 
rise of the Baptists in England. 

I. Growth of the Free-church ideal in England. — The most 
noteworthy growth of Free-churchism is in England, and its 
relation to the Protestant establishments is seen to best advan- 
tage there. Beginning with the authorization of the Book of 
Common Prayer as the only legal compendium of public 
worship, the drafting of the Thirty-nine Articles, and, for 
the suppression of opposition, the Act of Uniformity, the 
student will trace four stages in the progress of dissent, accord- 
ing to the degree of its radicalism. The first includes those 
who were willing to accept episcopacy as the form of church 
government but sought to purify the doctrine and ritual of 
the Church of England and bring it into harmony with the 
Reformed churches — the Puritans. Here we see the influence 
of Geneva and Scotland. The names of the archbishops of 
Canterbury from Parker to Bancroft figure in these con- 
troversies. The Apology of Bishop Jewel and The Ecclesi- 
astical Polity of Richard Hooker set forth the views of the 
moderate Episcopalians. The works of Thomas Cartwright, 



424 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

the Lambeth Articles (see Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 
Vol. Ill), and the Millenary Petition presented to James I 
present the Puritan view. The controversy came to a 
head through the ecclesiastical administration of Laud and 
culminated in the great civil war. For this the standard 
political histories are available. The student will note the 
rise of a persistent division within the estabhshed church^ 
the High Church and the Broad Church parties. Recon- 
ciliation has proved impossible. 

2. Presbyterianism.^The second stage of dissent is held 
by those who sought to bring the Church of England into full 
conformity with the Reformed conception in both doctrine 
and order — the Presbyterians. The work of Walter Travis, 
in Latin, on church discipline opened the Presybterian con- 
tention. The bitter attacks on the bishops made by the 
author of the Martin Marprelate tracts (perhaps Henry 
Barrowe) are the most noteworthy features of the early steps 
taken by Presbyterians. The names of the three martyrs, 
John Greenwood, Henry Barrowe, and John Penry, are 
notable in this connection, as are also those of Francis John- 
son and Henry Ains worth, exiles in Holland. The full 
impact of the Presbyterian polemic is seen in the attempt to 
bring the whole of England under Presbyterianism through 
the alliance of the EngKsh Parliament with the Scots. The 
Longer and Shorter Catechisms and the Westminster Con- 
fession are monuments of the struggle, which was brought to 
an abrupt close by Cromwell and the army. 

Literature. — Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan 
Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), gives material illustrative 
of the true character of the struggle in the civil war. 

3. The Independents. — In the third stage we find tnose 
who, in addition to practicing the ''godly discipline" and 
plain worship of the Presbyterians, claimed the right of all 
churches of the regenerate to independent, democratic self- 
government as laid down in the New Testament — the Inde- 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 425 

pendents, later called Congregationalists. These, however, 
still held to the propriety of enforcing the doctrines and 
practices of the Christian faith upon all inhabitants of the 
country. The first noteworthy advocate of these views was 
Robert Browne — hence the early name, ''Brownists." 

Literature. — The most exhaustive study of Browne has been made 
by Champlin Burrage in The True Story of Robert Browne: The Church 
Covenant Idea (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1904); The 
Early English Dissenters in the Light of Recent Research (Cambridge: 
University Press, 191 2); The Retractation (Oxford: Hart, 1907); and 
other studies. 

The founding of a Separatist church at Norwich, the flight 
to Middleburg in Zeeland, the change in Johnson and Ains- 
worth's congregation at Amsterdam, the coming of John Smith 
and his congregation from Gainsborough, the migration of the 
congregation at Scrooby with the well-known Brewster, 
Bradford, and Robinson, of Pilgrim fame, as leaders, and the 
emigration to Plymouth, Massachusetts, are recounted in 
numerous works noted in all the histories of Congregationalism 
and of the founding of the New England colonies. The 
strenuous part played by the Independents in the civil war 
under Cromwell's leadership is recognized in the histories of 
that fight. 

Literature. — The following works may be specially noted: Dale, 
History of Congregationalism, especially Bks. I and H (London: Hod- 
der & Stoughton, 1907); Dexter, Story of the Pilgrims (Boston: Con- 
gregational Publication Soc, 1894); Fletcher, History of Independency 
(London: Snow, 1847-49). 

4. The Baptists. — We reach a fourth stage of opposition 
to the state church when we find many Independents becom- 
ing Baptists, as they preferred to be called, rather than 
Anabaptists, The story of John Smith, called by Dexter the 
Se-Baptist, his relations with the Mennonites, the separation 
from him, when he sought baptismal succession, by many 



426 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

who followed Thomas Helwys and John Murton back to 
England in 1611, and the growth of the General Baptists 
there, is related by the Baptist histories above named. The 
student will note the rise of another Baptist body, Particular 
Baptists, so called from the view of atonement held by them, 
springing from a church under the leadership of Henry 
Jacob. It is important to study the Tracts on Liberty of Con- 
science collected by the Hanserd Knollys Society, especially 
Leonard Busher's Religion's Peace and Roger WilHams' 
Bloody Tenent of Persecution. At this point we reach the limit 
of our study. 

The student should not leave the subject without raising 
the question: Which of these four movements offers the best 
interpretation of the inner spirit of Protestantism? 

C. SUMMARY ESTIMATE OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 

The Protestant Reformation appears, as one surveys it 
from the distance of four centuries, to have been one of those 
great convulsions of human society which occur when multi- 
tudes of people inhabiting vast contiguous territories come 
under the influence of a common impulse to seek the ful- 
filment of the meaning of life in new directions. Such an 
impulse is sure to appear as mainly iconoclastic in the early 
stages of its action, because existing customs, institutions, and 
theories stand as barriers to its free execution. In later 
stages of its progress its creative power is disclosed in the 
appearing of new customs, institutions, and doctrines which 
displace those that have now become antiquated to some 
minds; but alongside of them the old may survive and even 
regain new vigor by contact with the new. 

Thus it was with the Reformation. In respect both to the 
destructive and to the constructive force that was released 
it was less effective in the sixteenth century than its most 
enthusiastic representatives expected, for after the first 
shock of surprise the conservative influence asserted itself 



THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 427 

with much success and forced the postponement of the radical 
outworking of the Protestant principle to later times. 

The preceding study has shown that the factors at work 
were many and diverse in their empirical origin. The ques- 
tion arises: How is it that the Reformation has been tra- 
ditionally regarded as a religious movement? The answer 
must be: Because it really was such — not, of course, in the 
narrow sense of a distinctively supernatural impulse separate 
from the motives that direct men in common affairs, but in 
the sense that a man's religion is constituted by the unification 
of all his many-sided activities in a single aim, the worship 
of the unseen ideal. The true genius of the Reformation 
found its best expression in the religious leaders because 
they most truly divined its secret heart. 

Religiously viewed, then, the Reformation was an attempt 
to consecrate the supreme worth of personality. It was an 
effort of the human spirit in the individual to affirm the 
supremacy of the personal in the spiritual and material realms. 
In the former realm it took the form of a conflict between the 
aggressive spirit of the self-conscious man and the structures 
of thought and will by which a precedent social order sought 
to maintain its ancient possessions in their entirety and there- 
by to hold the man in leash. In the material realm it was 
an affirmation of the essential friendship between man and 
*' nature" and the right and capacity of the human spirit to 
make "nature " instrumental to the achievement of the destiny 
of personality. In this regard it may be described as an 
attempt to take possession of the material world as a means 
of fulfilling the life of fellowship with God. Its God was 
distinctly personal and in no need of intermediaries in his 
approach to men. He wrought in them immediately. The 
immense enterprises that awakened in Protestantism were 
the fruit of the unconquerable courage that the new religious 
spirit created. 



VIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN 
CHRISTIANITY 

By ERRETT gates 

Instructor in History and Assistant Professor of Church History in the 
Disciples' Divinity House, University of Chicago 



ANALYSIS 

Introduction: The Nature and Meaning of Modern Christianity. — 
Definition. — Religion and culture indissolubly related. — Distinctive 
elements of modern Christianity. — i. The element of liberty. — 
2. The element of scientific veracity. — 3. The element of rationality. — 
4. The element of humanity. — 5. The element of spirituality — 6. The 
element of secularity. — 7. The element of social responsibility. — 
8. The element of democracy. — 9. The element of catholicity. — 
10. The relation of modern Christianity to Protestantism and to 
Catholicism 431-440 

I. The Politico-Ecclesiastical Movement. — Liberty of conscience in 
rehgion. — The ancient conception of religion as an affair of the state. 
— Christianity a religion of individual conviction. — The develop- 
ment of the idea of religious liberty. — The influence of the 
Protestant Reformation. — ^The movement of religious dissent. 
— The guaranty of religious liberty by the state. — Development of 
religious liberty in Protestantism 441-446 

II. The Scientific Movement. — Scientific method welcomed by 
modern Christianity. — The development of modern science. — 
The conflict between religion and science. — Attempt at harmoniza- 
tion. — The present relationship between science and religion. — Some 
unsolved problems 446-452 

III. The Philosophical Movement. — The problems of modern 
philosophy, — The problem of knowledge. — The rationalistic move- 
ment. — Influence of rationalism on religious thinking. — The philo- 
sophical criticism of rationalism. — Kant. — Schleiermacher. — Ritschl 452-458 

IV. The Historical Movement. — The genetic treatment of his- 
tory. — Development of historical method. — The principle of historical 
correlation. — The principle of historical development. — The prin- 
ciple of historical uniformity. — The historical study of the Bible. — 
History of biblical criticism. — The critical study of church history 458-466 

V. The Social Movement. — The sense of social responsibility. — 
Elements of the social consciousness. — Sources of the social move- 
ment. — The socializing of modern Christianity. — The development 
of Christianity from a dogmatic to an ethical interest. — The practical 
testing of Christianity. — The transition from an ethical to a social 
interest. — ^The literary prophets of the social ideal .... 466-475 

VI. The Missionary Movement. — The influence of missionary 
ideals on modern Christianity. — ^The modification of missionary 
activities due to modern thought. — Factors in the broader view of 
missions. — Some problems which missionaries must face, — ^The 
study of comparative religions and missionary ideals, — A new 
apologetic for Christianity, — The need of social salvation, — The 
movement toward Christian union 475-482 



VIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN 
CHRISTIANITY 

INTRODUCTION 
THE NATURE AND MEANING OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 

Definition. — The term "modern Christianity" is used in 
this treatment in a special sense, and refers to the principles, 
tendencies, or movements which have sometimes been called 
"progressive Christianity/' "the new theology," or "modern- 
ism." It has not taken institutional form in any organized 
denomination nor received authoritative expression in any 
system of doctrine. It is rather a religious attitude, a mode 
of thought, or a principle of action manifesting itself in all 
denominations and Christian movements. 

Briefly defined, modern Christianity is the Christianity 
which has steadily progressed with the progress of modern 
civilization, both influencing it and being influenced by it. 
The history of Western Europe since the introduction of 
Christianity shows a continuous balance between the church 
and society, religion and civilization. Neither at any time 
shows any great difference from the other. Sometimes one, 
sometimes the other, may be leading, but they are never com- 
pletely separated from each other in character. 

Religion and culture indissolubly related. — It is impossible 
for religion or the church to move on apart from the rest of 
society. The religion of an age is a part of the civilization of 
an age. The individuals who make up the state and formulate 
the politics of an age, or compose society and create its 
social consciousness, make up the church and formulate its 
religious thought. The same individuals are at the same time 
citizens, merchants, scholars, soldiers, and worshipers, and 
what they are in one sphere they tend to be in all other 

431 



432 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

spheres. Society is a solidarity, and religion is an integral 
part of it. 

This will be found to be notably true of modern Chris- 
tianity. It is a reflex in religious thought and action of the 
modern social consciousness. It has grown out of a deliberate 
acceptance of the results of modern progress and out of a 
conscious effort to incorporate all of the assured values of 
modern civilization into religion. 

DISTINCTIVE ELEMENTS OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 

Since modern Christianity is not an organic movement 
nor a formulated system of doctrine, it can be summarized 
only in terms of certain peculiar principles or tendencies, and 
these cannot be stated definitely or exhaustively, but only 
suggestively. 

No definite date can be assigned for the beginnings of 
modern Christianity. Faint intimations of it lie far back 
in the mediaeval period. Its more rapid course of develop- 
ment was coincident with the emancipation of the human 
mind and society from the control of the mediaeval church 
and theology in the sixteenth century; but it did not become 
conscious of itself until the eighteenth century. The nine- 
teenth century witnessed the acceptance of all of its essential 
principles in enlightened religious circles. 

Literature. — Troeltsch has attempted a formulation of the tendencies 
of the modern religious movement in several treatises, especially in his 
Protestantism and Progress (New York: Putnam, 19 12), which should be 
studied with painstaking care. On p. 39 the author refers to several 
different formulations of the principles of modern thought which he has 
attempted, thus showing how differently the same principles may be 
stated. 

In this connection three books by President Henry Churchill King 
of Oberlin College are of primary importance: his Reconstruction in 
Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1901); Theology and the Social Con- 
sciousness (New York: Macmillan, 1902); and The Moral and Religious 
Challenge of Our Times (New York: Macmillan, 191 1). 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 433 

Professor George A. Coe, in The Religion of a Mature Mind (Chicago : 
Revell, 1902), has given careful and discriminating expression to several 
elements of modern Christianity. 

Professor Gerald B. Smith has studied the transforming influence of 
democratic and scientific ideas upon ethics and theology in his book on 
Social Idealism and the Changing Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1913). 

1. The element of liberty. — ^Liberty in modern Chris- 
tianity has a wide range of manifestations. 

In its general theological phase it is the right claimed by 
the modern religious thinker to be free from the control of 
authority, or the disposition to subject all authorities, whether 
the Bible, the church, tradition, or a priori ''reason," to the 
test of rationality and experience. 

In its politico-religious phase it is the right claimed by the 
individual to be free from the control of the civil authority in 
his belief and worship, and constitutes "freedom of con- 
science." 

In its historico-biblical phase it is the right claimed by the 
scholar to study the Bible as any other literature, and con- 
stitutes ''freedom of scholarship." 

In its ethical form it is the right to be inwardly self- 
governed in the choice of moral aims and in moral conduct, and 
constitutes "freedom of will" or "moral autonomy." 

Literature. — For a study of the principle of liberty in its general 
historic relation to religious authority the student should turn to Auguste 
Sabatier, Religions of Authority and the Religion oj the Spirit (New York: 
McClure, Phillips & Co., 1904). Read in this connection chap, iii of 
Professor Coe's book on The Religion of a Mature Mind (Chicago: Revell, 
1902); and Professor W. N. Clarke's An Outline of Christian Theology, 
pp. 10-53 (New York: Scribner, 1898). 

2. The element of scientific veracity. — Veracity enters 
intimately, along with liberty, into every phase of modern 
Christianity. It really forms the moral ground for the 
justification of liberty. The right to be free is grounded in 
the duty to be true to what really is; that is, to be truthful. 
It is the scientific spirit. 



434 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

We shall see this element of veracity especially at work 
in the field of biblical study. The quest for what is really 
true concerning the origin and history of the books of the 
Bible constitutes its aim and spirit, and the discovery of 
what is true constitutes the reason for freedom to state 
what is discovered. This is freedom of scholarship as under- 
stood by all modern biblical scholars. 

It is the spirit of veracity in religious belief and in moral 
conduct which has compelled the appeal to experience as a 
source of authority. The use of experience in ethics and 
religion corresponds to the use of fact in science and of event 
in history. Nothing but experience will yield the sense of 
truth and reality, and nothing but reality and worth can 
compel veracity. Hence both theology and ethics have 
become experimental in method. 

Literature. — ^H. C. King has called attention to the moral basis for 
the scientific method in The Moral and Religious Challenge of Our Times, 
chap, iv (New York: Macmillan, 1911). 

3. The element of rationality. — The development of 
modern Christianity has been characterized by an increasing 
tendency to appeal to reason as a criterion of the truth. 
While it has found its chief sphere of application in the field of 
religious thought, no element of religious faith or practice 
has escaped its influence. The beliefs, the ceremonies, the 
customs, the institutions, and the life of religion have all been 
subjected to its testing. The tendency of the modern Chris- 
tian mind is to accept only that which commends itself as true, 
just, and good in the light of experience and reflection. It 
is not enough that a belief, ceremony, or institution have 
the sanction of authority or custom; it must secure the 
sanction of reason by proving its truth or its worth. 

The rise of Deism in the seventeenth century was the 
beginning of that inexorable demand upon religion, in modern 
times, that it make itself entirely rational. 



. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 435 

4. The element of humanity. The element of humanity, 
kindness, or sympathy has steadily grown in importance 
as a criterion of good morality and of true religion. It has 
grown out of the increasing sense, in modern times, of the 
dignity and sacredness of human life. The growth of human- 
ity has revolutionized human conduct in both its personal and 
its political aspects. It has at the same time revolutionized 
Christian theology and activity. It lies at the root of all 
modern philanthropy and social service, whether carried on by 
the church, by the state, or by society at large. 

5. The element of spirituality. — Religion has tended to 
grow more spiritual, more inward, in modern times. The 
essence of spirituality consists in a direct, personal, and 
inner relation to God as opposed to a magical, ceremonial, 
or hierarchical relation; in ethical conduct rather than 
in ecstatic feeling or doctrinal inerrancy. As to form, 
spirituality is a psychological rather than a physical con- 
dition or relation. As to content, it is grounded in a good 
will and cannot be distinguished from a truly moral life. 

Literature. — The student will find this modern conception of spiritu- 
ality set forth by Professor George A. Coe in his book on The Spiritual 
Life (Chicago: Revell, 1900), and in chap, v of The Religion of a 
Mature Mind (Chicago: Revell, 1902). 

6. The element of secularity. — ^A greater appreciation of 
the worth and sanctity of the present natural order enters 
pre-eminently into the attitude of the modern Christian. 
The secular spirit has grown as the ascetic spirit has declined in 
the modern world. It has broken down the sharp antithesis 
between sacred and secular, the present and the future, the 
heavenly and the earthly, the inspired and the uninspired, 
the human and the divine. Several ideas have wrought in 
this direction: the spiritual conception of religion has made 
all times and places sacred; the concept of the sovereignty of 
the individual and the equality of all men have made all 
persons sacred, while the conception of the divine immanence 



436 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

has made both ethical and metaphysical dualism incongruous. 
The result has been a twofold process — a secularization of 
the religious and a sanctification of the secular. 

Professor Gerald B. Smith characterizes this process as an 
''ethical transformation" under the influence of the demo- 
cratic and scientific ideals, and says: 

Now the total effect of those movements of thought and of social 
activity which make up what we call the modern world is to turn atten- 
tion to the resources of this world and to discover moral values in the 
immanent processes of human evolution [Social Idealism and the 
Changing Theology, p. 211]. 

In contrasting the points of difference between the medi- 
aeval and the modern world Professor Troeltsch says: 

A valuation of the present world for the sake of the riches and beauty 
of the world, an estimation of the goods attained in the progress of 
civilization because of an independent ethical value attaching to them, 
is consequently impossible. But precisely such a valuation of these 
things is the characteristic feature of the modern feeling towards the 
world and civilization {Protestantism and Progress, p. 77). 

Literature. — For a further treatment of the modern trend toward 
an ethical secularism in opposition to asceticism the student is referred 
to Gladden, Ruling Ideas of the Present Age (Boston: Houghton Mifflin 
Co., 1895); Freemantle, The Gospel of the Secular Life (London: Cassell, 
1882); Bowne, The Divine Immanence (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 
1906); and G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the Changing Theology, 
chap, ii (New York: Macmillan, 19 13). 

7. The element of social responsibility. — One of the 
most significant discoveries of the modern world has been 
the fact that a man's life — his moral, intellectual, economic, 
and physical life — is socially conditioned. It has been dis- 
covered that it is not enough to regenerate the individual; 
his environment must also be regenerated— the society in 
which he lives, with all of its customs and institutions — if the 
regeneration of the individual is to be permanent and com- 
plete. And it has been further discovered that a man is a 
unity; he is not merely soul, but soul and body. As the 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 437 

individual is one with his society, so the soul is one with 
the body; and Christianity has therefore a social as well as 
an individual, a physical as well as a spiritual, task in the 
salvation of the soul (see King, Rational Living) . 

Literature. — The student will find the libraries filled with books on 
this theme, and a growing stream of them issuing from the press. Among 
the most notable of the earlier books read Freemantle, The World as the 
Subject of Redemption (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1895); 
and among the more recent, Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the 
Social Crisis (New York: Macmillan, 1907), and Christianizing the 
Social Order (New York: Macmillan, 1914). 

8. The element of democracy. — The principle of democ- 
racy affirms the sovereignty and competency of the individual 
in all affairs relating to his own well-being. It arose first of 
all in the political sphere, but it was found to be equally 
appHcable in the religious sphere. No phase of modern 4ife 
or thought has escaped its influence, but it has been especially 
influential in all modern religious development — in doctrine, 
life, and organization. 

It has been largely responsible for the overthrow of the 
Calvinistic theology, with its absolutist doctrine of the 
divine sovereignty and election, of a limited atonement, 
and its fatahst doctrine of hereditary depravity. It has 
also been the guiding principle in the modern development 
of independence in church government. 

The modern conception of religious authority has grown 
out of the democratic principle. Rev. George Tyrrell says: 
"The two deepest characteristics of the new order are the 
scientific spirit and the democratic movement — a new con- 
ception of authority and government" (Mediaevalism, p. 120). 

An analysis of the element of democracy, however, would 
show that other elements enter into it, such as the elements 
of humanity and liberty. 

Literature. — The student will find that all the writers to whom 
reference has already been made deal with the principle of democracy 



438 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

in relation to modern religious thought and life, especially Smith and 
King. 

9. The element of catholicity. — The modern Christian 
mind has grown more tolerant toward the religious beliefs 
of other Christians and more appreciative of the religions 
of non- Christian people. Christian co-operation and union 
are taking the place of sectarian ostracism and controversy. 

The resemblances to Christian teaching found in non- 
Christian religions are no longer waved aside as false imita- 
tions of Christianity or the inventions of demons, but are 
considered genuine attainments of the truth under different 
forms by the most inspired spirits among the 'heathen. And 
their virtues are no longer treated as '' splendid vices," but as, 
in their degree, approaches to genuine Christian morality. 

The study of comparative religion, and a closer contact 
with the East through foreign missions and international 
commerce, have had much to do with this new attitude; 
but the decisive change has come through the rationalizing 
influences of philosophy and science. The modern mind 
has discovered new principles by which to interpret and 
unify the facts of the universal religious consciousness, the 
most significant of which are the principles of evolution and 
of the relativity of knowledge. 

The student should be reminded that these principles or 
elements are at the same time elements of modern Christianity 
and of modern civilization, and that Christianity and civiKza- 
tion have been inseparable in their development. It is not 
possible then to say that they are the exclusive product of 
either one; they are the product of the total social process 
which we call civilization, of which Christianity has been 
a part, and on which it has exerted its influence. Just what 
the influence of Christianity has been it is difficult to say, 
but it is safe to afhrm that it has been very decisive. 

Literature. — Efforts have been made to estimate the influence of 
Christianity upon social progress, the most notable of which is by 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 439 

Benjamin Kidd in his two books, Social Evolution (New York: Mac- 
millan, 1895), and The Principles of Western Civilization (New York: 
Macmillan, 1902). 

10. The relation of modem Christianity to Protestantism 
and Catholicism. — Troeltsch and Harnack have pointed out 
the many mediaeval elements which survived in early Protes- 
tantism, such as the dogma of biblical authority, a redemptive 
church, sacramental and confessional assurance, the union of 
church and state, and an ascetic view of the Christian life. 
All of these principles stood opposed to the trend of the 
modern world toward freedom, spirituality, and democracy. 

In both principle and action, however. Protestantism has 
shown itself more congenial to modern tendencies than 
Catholicism. The Protestant principle of justification by faith, 
in its earliest expression as an act of faith, was essentially a 
modern principle; but it was later identified with the doc- 
trinal content of faith and largely eliminated as a factor 
in modern progress. Persecution for heresy arose in the 
dominant Protestant churches as a consequence, and just as 
little freedom of faith and of thought was granted in Protestant 
countries as "n Catholic. 

Within Protestantism have arisen many organic move- 
ments embodying fundamental Protestant principles and 
one or more modern elements, such as Socinianism, Armini- 
anism, Baptistism, Congregationalism, Quakerism, Evan- 
gelicalism, Pietism, Unitarianism, and Universalism, and 
various intellectual movements, such as Latitudinarianism, 
the Higher Criticism, and Ritschlianism, all of which have 
left traces of their influence upon the dominant trend of 
Protestantism. 

Protestantism has undergone a gradual transformation 
and has shown a disposition to adapt herself to modern 
progress. 

The student will find that it has been quite different 
with Catholicism. In principle the latter is opposed to all 



440 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

change. She has crushed all modern tendencies and resisted 
all modern influences within her organization. In the 
Syllabus of Errors of 1864 Pope Pius IX condemned as an 
error the following proposition: '^The Roman Pontiff can 
and ought to reconcile himself to and agree with progress, 
liberalism, and civilization as lately introduced." All or- 
ganizations and all schools of thought with modern tend- 
encies which have arisen in Catholicism have been suppressed. 
Such movements as Jansenism, Quietism, and Febronianism 
disappeared before the nineteenth century and left no 
influence. Doellingerism was overwhelmed within the church 
by the Vatican Council of 1870, and Modernism was forced 
into silence or submission by Pius X. Ultramontanism and 
Mediaevalism are in complete ascendency, as in the sixteenth 
century. Modern Christianity is therefore neither Protestant 
nor Catholic. Its development has taken place more rapidly 
and completely within Protestant countries and shows 
greater affinities for Protestantism than for Catholicism; 
yet it is not possible to say that it has been the sole product of 
the Protestant movement. Troeltsch goes so far as to say, 
however, that, '^on the grounds of pure fact, we are warranted 
in saying that the religion of the modern world is essentially 
determined by Protestantism, and that this constitutes the 
greatest historical significance of Protestantism" {Protestant- 
ism and Progress, p. 185). Other forces of a non-religious 
secular nature have also contributed largely to the total 
result. 

Literature. — ^The student will find the above-mentioned relations 
specifically dealt with by Troeltsch in Protestantism and Progress (New 
York: Putnam, 191 2), and in his section of Die Kultur der Gegen- 
wart, Teil I, Abt. IV, on ''Protestantisches Christentum und Kirche 
in der Neuzeit" (BerHn: Teubner, 1906); by Harnack in his History 
of Dogma, English translation, Vol. VII (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 
1900); and by Karl Sell in Katholizismus und Protestantismus 
in Geschichte, Religion, Politik, Kultur (Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer, 
1908). 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 441 
I. THE POLITICO-ECCLESIASTICAL MOVEMENT 

The importance of the modern politico-ecclesiastical 
movement for the development of modern Christianity lies 
in the relation of this movement to modern liberty. The 
attention of the student has already been called to liberty 
as a constituent element of modern Christianity. One aspect 
of this liberty — liberty of conscience — was largely an out- 
growth of the politico-ecclesiastical movement. 

Liberty of conscience in religion. — By Hberty of conscience 
in this treatment is meant the freedom of the individual from 
the control of the state in his religious belief and worship. 
The study really involves the entire history of the relation 
between church and state, from the beginnings of that 
relation under Cons tan tine (312-36). 'To understand just 
what the nature of the struggle for religious liberty has been, 
the student should study first of all the origin and nature of 
the mediaeval tyranny out of which modern liberty arose. 

The student will find that mediaeval tyranny was an 
inheritance from previous political and religious conditions 
as they existed in ancient states, especially in Greece, Rome, 
and among the Hebrews. For this study the most significant 
element of that inheritance is the control of religion by the 
government — a union of church and state — and the concep- 
tions of the state and of religion upon which it was based. 

The ancient conception of religion as an affair of the state. 
— In all ancient states religion was an affair of the state. The 
worship of the gods was a public function and not a private 
right. Religion was social, not personal, and consisted of 
public ceremonies rather than personal convictions. The 
individual had no personal religious interests apart from those 
of the community, unless he happened to be a foreigner and 
worshiped a foreign god. 

Christianity a religion of individual conviction. — ^With the 
rise of Christianity religion became an affair of the individ- 
ual. Jesus appealed to the conscience and grounded religion 



442 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

in personal belief. When he said, ''Render unto Caesar 
the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that 
are God's," he established an authority over the individual 
distinct from the authority of the state. 

Reasons for the persecution of Christians. — All the con- 
ditions of religious tyranny and persecution were at hand 
with the birth of Christianity into Jewish society and the 
Roman state. The early Christians, with their conception 
of the inwardness and privacy of religion, were bound to 
come into conflict with the temporal powers of the ancient 
world, with their conception of the absolute sovereignty of 
the state. The personal Christian conscience from the first 
set itself against the royal and the social will and declared, 
''We must obey God rather than men." With this difference 
between the ancient pagan conception of the state and of the 
place and function of religion in the state, and with the new 
Christian conception of the distinction between things spiritual 
and things temporal, religious tyranny began; and it did not 
cease until modern states transferred religion from the status 
of a pubhc function to the status of a private right, 
under the legal form of a voluntary association or private 
corporation. 

The development of the idea of religious liberty. — The 
growth of religious liberty was a many-sided movement. It 
was involved in the whole development of civilization. It 
came as a result of many influences — religious, political, 
military, philosophical, economic, and commercial. A com- 
plete understanding of it would involve a knowledge of all that 
has made for progress in the modern world, for liberty is one 
of the products of civilization. 

But the history of religious liberty is something more 
definite than the summary of the influences which have brought 
it about; it finally came through certain specific parlia- 
mentary acts which changed the constitutions of states. It 
came both gradually and suddenly — gradually as a result of 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 443 

the' progress of such great principles of liberty as democracy, 
humanity, and rationality, and suddenly as a result of the 
victories of political parties and of armies. But for clearness 
of distinction the movement may be studied as a twofold 
process: first, as a movement of public opinion in favor of 
liberty created by all of its advocates, and, secondly, as a 
movement in political action expressed in the various acts 
of toleration. Both aspects are essential to a complete under- 
standing of it. 

The influence of the Protestant Reformation. — The 
starting-point in this study is the Protestant Reformation and 
its relation to the progress of liberty. The student will find 
that the first generation of great reformers and Protestant 
parties did not believe in freedom of conscience nor in a 
separation of church and state, and that the first direct influ- 
ence of the Reformation was a strengthening of the principle 
of religious tyranny — of the authority of the civil ruler over 
the religion of his subjects. It remained for the outlawed 
Protestant parties of the first generation — the Anabaptists 
and the Socinians — and for the new reformatory parties of 
the second and subsequent generations — the Independents, 
the Baptists, the Arminians, and the Quakers — to become the 
heralds and bearers of religious liberty. 

The movement of religious dissent. — The direct move- 
ment for religious liberty in modern times began with the 
rise of religious dissent (chiefly Protestant but partly Catholic) , 
and was consummated through the struggle of these dissenting 
nonconformist parties for freedom of worship against the 
efforts of civil rulers to enforce uniformity of religion in their 
realms. The interesting fact is that the leading part in this 
struggle was taken, and the greatest sacrifices for liberty were 
made, by a religious party which did not at first believe in 
individual freedom of conscience — the Presbyterians. They 
struggled for liberty for themselves, but they won it finally for 
all other dissenters. 



444 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

The student will find the history of the Netherlands, 
England, Scotland, France, Germany, and America during 
the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries of 
chief significance in the development of modern liberty. 
Religious questions were inseparably interwoven with political 
ones during this period. In each of these countries the 
government was the sovereign ecclesiastical as well as political 
power, and as a means of securing religious Kberty the dis- 
senting religious parties were obliged to identify themselves 
with poHtical movements. They adopted political measures 
and such political principles as favored their religious free- 
dom. They became at the same time both religious and 
political revolutionists and brought in by the same struggle 
both religious and political liberty. 

The guaranty of religious liberty by the state. — While 
many influences co-operated to promote religious liberty, 
the student must not forget that it was finally achieved in the 
sphere of political theory and action. It was the state 
which withheld it and the state which finally granted it. A 
study of the history of political theories, both mediaeval and 
modern, becomes, therefore, for the student of religious liberty 
one of his most essential tasks. The idea of liberty was first 
of all formulated in political theory before it was carried out 
in political action. In each case it came as a result of a 
changed conception of governmental powers and of the 
relation between government and religion. 

Development of religious liberty in Protestantism. — 
The student will discover that Protestantism has been a more 
congenial soil for the growth of liberty than Catholicism. 
This phenomenon may be due in part to racial characteristics; 
but it is due in far greater measure to the religious differences 
between Protestantism and Catholicism. Through its dis- 
tinctive religious principles — justification by faith and the 
universal priesthood of believers — Protestantism became a 
decisive influence in the struggle for modern liberty, both 
religious and political. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY ' 445 

For this reason such Protestant countries as the Nether- 
lands, England, Scotland, and America have contributed far 
more to the progress of religious liberty than such Catholic 
countries as France, Spain, Austria, and Italy. 

Literature. — On the history of religious liberty in general consult 

F. Ruffini, Religious Liberty (New York: Putnam, 191 2), which deals 
chiefly with the great historic treatises advocating religious liberty; 

G. L. Scherger, The Evolution of Modern Liberty (New York: Longmans, 
Green, & Co., 1904), which deals with the relation of the principle of 
"natural law" to liberty. See also J. MacKinnon, A History of Modern 
Liberty (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1906); Lord Acton, The 
History of Freedom (London: Macmillan, 1907); P. Schaff, The Progress 
of Religious Freedom as Shown in the History of Toleration Acts (New 
York: Scribner, 1889) ; B. G.Ritchie, Natural Rights (New York: Mac- 
millan, 189s); the New Schaf-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowl- 
edge, article "Liberty." 

For the theory of the mediaeval church-state consult James Bryce, 
The Holy Roman Empire (New York: Macmillan, 1890) ; W. A. Dunning, 
History of Political Theories, Ancient and Mediaeval (New York: Mac- 
millan, 1902) ; A. J. Carlyle, A History of Mediaeval Political Theories 
in the West, 3 vols. (London: Blackwood, 1903-9). Especially impor- 
tant is O. Gierke, Das deutsche Genossenschaftrecht, Bd. Ill (BerUn: 
Weidmanuj 1868-81), a portion of which has been translated by Mait- 
land, under the title Political Theories of the Middle Ages (Cambridge: 
University Press, 1900). See also by the same author, Johannes Althu- 
sius, und die Entwickelung der naturrechtlichen Staatstheorien (Breslau: 
Marcus, 1902). 

For the political theories of the reformers consult W. A. Dunning, 
History of Political Theories from Luther to Montesquieu (New York: 
Macmillan, 1905); J. N. Figgis, From Gerson to Grotius (Cambridge: 
University Press, 1907); G. Jager, "PoHtische Ideen Luthers und ihr 
Einfluss auf die innere Entwickelung Deutschlands, Preussisches Jahr- 
buch, 1903. 

For the general relation of church and state read H. Geffcken, 
Staat und Kirche in ihrem Verhaltniss geschichtlich entwickelt (Berlin: 
Hertz, 1875; English translation by Tyler, Church and State, Their 
Relations Historically Considered, 2 vols. [London: Longmans, Green, & 
Co., 1877]). See New Schaf-Herzog Encyclopedia, articles "Church and 
State" (with bibliography), "TerritoriaHsm," " CoUegialism " ; K. 
Volker, Toleranz und Intoleranz im Zeitalter der Reformation (Leipzig: 
Hinrichs, 19 12). 



446 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

For the rise and theory of absolute monarchy see H. Sidgwick, The 
Development of European Polity (London: Macmillan, 1903); J. N. 
Figgis, The Theory of the Divine Right of Kings (Cambridge: University 
Press, 1896). 

On the struggle for political and religious liberty in the Netherlands 
the student will find a good brief account in A. H. Johnson, Europe in 
the Sixteenth Century, chap, viii (London: Rivington, 1898). This should 
be supplemented by a study of P. J. Blok, History of the People of the 
Netherlands, Vols. Ill and IV, (New York: Putnam, 1898-1912); Ruth 
Putman, William the Silent (New York: Putnam, 1895). 

For the Puritan struggle for religious liberty in England consult 
D. Campbell, The Puritan in England, Holland, and America (New 
York: Harper, 1892); G. P. Gooch, English Democratic Ideas in the 
Seventeenth Century (Cambridge: University Press, 1898); W. St. John, 
Contest for Liberty of Conscience in England (Chicago: The University of 
Chicago Press, 1900); H. F. Russell- Smith, The Theory of Religious 
Liberty in the Reign of Charles II and James II (Cambridge, 191 1); 
A. A. Seaton, The Theory of Toleration under the Later Stuarts (Cambridge, 
1911). 

On Puritanism in New England and the struggle for religious liberty 
consult S. H. Cobb, The Rise of Religious Liberty in America (New York: 
Macmillan, 1902) ; P. E. Lauer, Church and State in New England (Balti- 
more: Johns Hopkins University, 1892); M. L. Greene, The Development 
of Religious Liberty in Connecticut (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1905). 

On the struggle for toleration in France the student should consult 
the New Schaf-Herzog Encyclopedia, articles on the Huguenots, with 
cross-references and bibliography; Armstrong, "The Political Theories 
of the Huguenots," English History Review, IV, 13; Bonet-Maury, 
Histoire de la liber te de conscience en France (Paris: Alcan, 1900J; 
W. M. Sloane, The French Revolution and Religious Reform (New York; 
Scribner, 1901). 

II. THE SCIENTIFIC MOVEMENT 

Modern science has been one of the most decisive factors in 
the formation of modern religious thought. Very few religious 
ideas have escaped its modifying influence. The result of 
this influence within the sphere of Christian belief is registered 
in what is here called modern Christianity. 

Scientific method welcomed by modem Christianity. — 
Modern Christianity thus receives one of its chief marks of 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 447 

distinction from its connection with modern science. It 
recognizes the fundamental necessity of a true science to 
rehgion, approves and imitates its spirit and methods, and 
accepts all of its verified discoveries and conclusions. It does 
not fear science, as the older Christianity did, nor seek to 
control it, but cordially welcomes it as a friend and ally. 

The development of modem science. — ^The task before 
the student in this study is to find out, not merely the nature 
of the influence of science upon religion, but to trace the 
origin and historical development of that influence. The 
student should not forget that his task is primarily historical 
and that the logical place to begin is with the beginnings of 
modern science. 

The conflict between religion and science. — The relation 
between science and religion in modern times assumed the 
form of a conflict. This appeared first of all as a conflict 
between the statements of Scripture concerning the origin 
and formation of the physical universe and the statements of 
scientists. It arose out* of the adoption by the Christian 
church of the Old Testament, with its primitive Semitic 
cosmogonies, as authoritative divine revelation. Throughout 
the entire conflict the first task of the theologians was to defend 
the scientific authority and infallibility of Scripture. The 
fundamental difference between science and religion was a 
difference in method of verification. Science sought to prove 
things true by observation and experiment; religion, by 
an appeal to authority — the authority of Scripture. 

Still further conflict arose owing to the two different 
theories of causation held by science and religion — the 
natural and the supernatural. Science sought a natural 
cause for things; religion rested upon the principle of an 
ultimate supernatural causation embodied in the scriptural 
explanation of things. Each of the sciences as they arose — ■ 
astronomy, geology, biology, archaeology, anthropology, 
and medicine — offered a natural explanation in place of the 



448 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

supernatural explanation of Scripture and gave rise to a new 
conflict which passed through an identical course of develop- 
ment in each instance. The first stage of each conflict was 
marked by the bitter, irreconcilable hostility of religious 
leaders toward the discoveries and hypotheses of the new 
science. 

Attempts at harmonization. — But the irresistible demon- 
strations of the scientists forced the theologians into an atti- 
tude of compromise. Harmonistic schemes were drawn up 
and Scripture was given an interpretation in agreement with 
the new science. But as the new science changed new 
harmonistic schemes and new interpretations of Scripture 
were formulated; and each new scheme, so different from the 
previous one, was in turn accepted as authoritative and 
divine. 

The present relationship between science and religion. — 
This contradictory, and futile process was finally its own un- 
doing and prepared the way for the present relation between 
science and religion in modern Christianity. 

Many discoveries were made by both scientists and 
religionists during the course of this conflict. Religionists 
discovered that Scripture was not what the older Christianity 
supposed it to be. It had been defended as an inspired 
scientific revelation. In the light of the new historical criti- 
cism, of archaeological discoveries, and of studies in com- 
parative religion, it was discovered that the sacred books of 
the Hebrews had grown up as the sacred books of all other 
religious peoples had, and were a record and a reflection of 
their civilization and religious evolution. In other words, 
the Bible itself was discovered to be a natural instead of a 
supernatural book, and to reflect the scientific knowledge 
of ancient peoples rather than to anticipate that of the 
modern world. Hence was born a new conception of Scrip- 
ture as the first step in a final reconciliation of science and 
religion. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 449 

But, partly through this conflict and partly through social 
development and philosophical inquiries, religionists dis- 
covered that religion was not what the older Christianity 
supposed it to be. It had been held to be identical in part 
with correct historical, scientific, and dogmatic beliefs based 
on Scripture. It was discovered to be spiritual life and began 
to be defined ethically in terms of personal purity and broth- 
erly love and service. Hence arose a clear distinction between 
science and religion and a separation of their spheres and 
functions. 

As a result of this modern separation of science and reli- 
gion, questions which were once regarded as religious, because 
dealt with in Scripture, were transferred to science. Such 
questions •as the origin and age of the earth and of the solar 
system; the origin and age of man and the lower forms of 
life; the origin and distribution of races of men, of languages, 
and of species of animals are now dealt with as purely sci- 
entific questions. The answers to them in nowise belong to 
or affect religion. 

But, on the other hand, the scientists have made some dis- 
coveries which have contributed to a final reconciliation of 
science and religion. Many of the older scientists were 
as hostile toward religion as the older religionists were toward 
science. They settled accounts finally with religion by 
pronouncing it a superstition — the invention of designing 
priests; and they proclaimed science to be the sum of all 
human knowledge and the ground of all human well-being. 
The newer scientists admit the limitations of science and 
agree to her restriction to her own peculiar sphere. Many 
questions once regarded as scientific are now turned over to 
ethics, religion, or philosophy. 

As Professor L. T. More says: 

If I have made myself clear, the limitations of science are due 
solely to the fact that there are, in addition to material forces, others of 
an essentially different kind which may be called, for lack of a better name, 



450 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

spiritual powers. And so long as men of science restrict their endeavor 
to the world of material substance and force, they will find that their 
field is practically without limits, so vast and so numerous are the prob- 
lems to be solved. And it should distress no one to discover that there are 
other fields of knowledge in which science is not concerned (Limitations of 
Science, p. 260). 

The criticism of science on the basis of the modern theory 
of knowledge — the principle of relativity — ^as well as the 
history of its mistakes has done much to moderate its dog- 
matic certainty. Relative to this More says: "Evidently 
the postulates of science are as complex, as subjective, 
and debatable as the postulates of religion and philosophy'' 
{op. cit., pp. 219-20). 

The emancipation of both science and religion. — Thus 
the conflict between science and religion, which had grown 
out of this attempt to discredit modern science by an appeal 
to the supposedly inspired science of Scripture, drew to a close 
at the opening of the twentieth century. It was settled, 
not by the overthrow of either, but by the emancipation of 
both from unnatural alHances and unwarranted pretensions. 
Science achieved its freedom and the recognition of its 
value to religion in all enlightened religious circles. The 
way was prepared for the rational and scientific treatment of 
all questions between science and religion. This has become 
the distinguishing mark of modern Christianity. 

Some unsolved problems. — This does not mean that all 
problems raised by science in the sphere of religious thought 
have been settled. On the other hand, there were many 
other problems besides that of bibHcal authority and infalli- 
bihty which appeared all along the way. There was the 
problem of the nature of God and of his relation to the 
physical universe, growing out of the discovery of "the reign 
of law" in nature; there was the problem of prayer and 
miracles in the light of natural law; the problem of sin and its 
origin and retribution in the Hght of evolution; there was the 



JHE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 451 

problem of immortality and science — all of which were ear- 
nestly debated and still call for solution. 

Some of these problems lie on the borderland between 
science and religion, where science passes into philosophy 
and religion into theology. In that realm the controversy 
will probably go on indefinitely, but in a spirit of earnest 
search for truth and of mutual respect in the relation of 
scientists and theologians. 

Literature. — ^There are several classes of books in which the student 
will find his material. He should turn first of all to such general his- 
tories of the sciences as those of Whewell and Williams and to the various 
histories of particular sciences. But there is very little material in 
either of these on the contact between science and religion. A second 
class of works are the biographies of the great scientists, which contain 
information on the treatment accorded the leaders of science by ecclesi- 
astical authorities. But more germane to this particular study are such 
histories of the conflict between science and religion as those by White 
and Zockler and the many works embodying attempts to reconcile 
science and religion. Very valuable also are the discussions of the 
general relations of science and religion by Boutroux and Romanes. 

On the primitive union between science and religion see O. Pflei- 
derer, Philosophy and Development of Religion, Vol. I, Lecture III (New 
York: Putnam, 1894); Hastings, Encyclopedia oj Religion and Ethics, 
article "Cosmogony and Cosmogonies." 

On the history of the sciences see W. Whewell, History of the Induc- 
tive Sciences, 2 vols. (New York: Appleton, 1901) (old but useful); 
H. S. Williams, A History of Science, 5 vols. (New York: Harper, 1904) 
(popular); Geikie, The Founders of Geology (JuondiOTi: Macmillan, 1897) 
Lyell, Principles of Geology, 12th ed. (London: Murray, 1876); W. W 
Bryant, A History of Astronomy (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1907) 
Osborn, From the Greeks to Darwin (New York: Macmillan, 1899) 
J. H. Baas, Leitfaden der Geschichte der Medicin (Stuttgart: Enke, 1880; 
English translation by Handerson, Outlines of the History of Medicine 
[New York: Vail, 1889]). 

On the history of the conflict between science and r-eligion the best 
in English is the work by A. D. White, A History of the Warfare of Science 
with Theology, 2 vols. (New York: Appleton, 1896); this is critical but 
appreciative of both science and religion; its bibliographies are of 
immense value. J. W. Draper, History of the Conflict between Science and 
Religion (New York: Appleton, 1893), is a pioneering work in English, 



452 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

hostile to religion. See also O. Zockler, Geschichte der Beziehungen 
zwischen Theologie und Naturwissenschaft, 2 vols. (Giitersloh: Bertels- 
mann, 1877); W. N. Rice, Christian Faith in an Age of Science (New 
York: Armstrong, 1903). 

On the relation between science and religion see A. J. Balfour, The 
Foundations of Belief (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1895); G. J. 
Romanes, Thoughts on Religion (Chicago: Open Court Pub. Co., 1895); 
L. T. More, Limitations of Science (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 191 5) ; 
Boutroux, Science et religion dans la philosophic contemporaine (Paris: 
Flammarion, 1908; English translation. Science and Religion in Con- 
temporary Philosophy [London: Duckworth, 1909]); G. Galloway, The 
Philosophy of Religion, pp. 189-95 (Edinburgh: Clark, 1914); R. B. 
Perry, Present Philosophical Tendencies, pp. 3-109 (New York: Long- 
mans, Green, & Co., 191 2). 

III. THE PHILOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT 

Modern Christianity owes some of its most characteristic 
principles to the reflection of modern philosophers, while all of 
its principles have been elucidated and strengthened by them. 
The relation between theology and philosophy has always 
been very intimate and their influence upon each other very 
marked, but never more so than in modern times. 

The problems of modem philosophy. — Modern philosophy 
has been concerned with two major inquiries: What is the 
nature of ultimate reality ? and What are the origin, nature, 
and limits of human knowledge? Both of these inquiries 
have direct religious bearings. 

The problem of knowledge. — Philosophers had not gone 
far in their inquiry into the nature of ultimate reality before 
they discovered that all their inquiry depended upon the solu- 
tion of a previous question as to the nature and validity of 
their knowledge. Hence modern philosophy was resolved 
into an inquiry into the origin and nature of human knowledge. 
From a study of the objective world modern philosophy 
turned to a study of the subjective or inner world. In this 
realm are to be found its great discoveries. And here, also, lie 
its decisive contributions to modern religious thought. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 453 

In order to understand the origin and nature of the influ- 
ence of modern philosophy upon theology, the student should 
take up the history of philosophy, which falls into two general 
stages of development separated by the work of Immanuel 
Kant (17 24-1804). The first stage may be designated as the 
period of rationalism and the second as the period of idealism. 

The rationalistic movement. — The modern rationalistic 
movement began with the Humanists. They made use of 
reason in free philosophical and theological speculations and in 
literary criticism. Their influence was felt in Socinianism 
and Arminianism, in Anglicanism and Latitudinarianism, 
but more notably in Deism, which found in reason the ulti- 
mate source of religious truth, the sole and sufficient guide in 
religious faith and moral conduct. Rationalism was more 
or less in vogue as a principle or tendency in religious and 
other forms of thought for more than a century before it was 
formulated into a system of philosophy by Rene Descartes 
( 1 596-1 6 50). As a philosophy, rationalism affirmed that 
''reason is a source of knowledge in itself, superior to and 
independent of sense-perceptions." 

The atmosphere of every realm of thought during the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was charged with the 
rationalistic conception of "innate ideas." In the political 
sphere it took the form of the theory of ''natural law" or 
"natural right" and led straight to the concept of popular 
sovereignty or democracy. In the sphere of morality it took 
the form of the idea of "natural morality" or the "light of 
nature." In the rehgious sphere it was spoken of as the 
principle of "natural religion" or of the "religion of reason." 
The fundamental assumption of rationalism was that man 
by his own individual powers of thought, unaided from 
without, either by divine revelation or human experience, 
could arrive at every essential truth of religion and every 
principle of moral or political action. Man was sovereign 
and reason was supreme. 



454 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION • 

Influence of rationalism on religious thinking. — The 

problem which rationaHsm raised in religion was mainly that 
of authority, and the contribution which it made to religious 
thought was the conception of an inner, personal, trust- 
worthy authority in religious faith and conduct — the reason. 
The issue was drawn between reason and revelation — rational- 
ism and supernaturaHsm. The entire question was fought 
out, as far as rationalism could carry it, in the deistical con- 
troversy in England. The conflict issued in a complete 
victory for rationalism, as far as the recognition of the 
authority of reason was concerned. No one dared to oppose 
the dictates of reason. Rationalists and Supernaturalists, 
believers and unbelievers alike, appealed to the authority and 
arbitrament of reason. The outcome on the side of religion 
was the creation of a ''rational orthodoxy," so called, 
which attempted to prove all the elements of traditional 
Christianity, derived from supernatural revelation, to be in 
harmony with reason. The teaching of this school has con- 
stituted the theology of orthodox Protestantism from the 
seventeenth century to the present time. 

The philosophical criticism of rationalism.— Rationalism, 
however, did not prove a final resting-place for philosophic 
thought, and consequently the orthodox theology based upon it 
soon found itself without a valid foundation. Its limitations 
were pointed out by John Locke (163 2-1 704) and David 
Hume (171 1-76), while Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) fused 
elements of both rationalism and sensationalism with new 
elements of his own into a new theory of knowledge which 
took the place of rationalism. While the latter proved 
inadequate as a theory of knowledge, yet it made a perma- 
nent contribution both to philosophical and to religious 
thought by calling attention to the originative power of the 
mind and the subjective element in knowledge. 

Kant. — No student of philosophy in its relation to modern 
religious thought can omit a thorough study of Kant, both in 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 455 

his own writings and in such general expositions of his religious 
philosophy as appear in works by McGiffert, Pfleiderer, 
Moore, and others mentioned in the references to literature 
given at the end of this section. Kant was first of all a 
philosopher, but he became one of the principal fountains 
from which the main stream of modern theology has flowed. 

The student is chiefly concerned with Kant's solution of 
the problem of knowledge. It was this problem which Kant 
inherited from the older rationalism, and which he answered 
approximately as all philosophers since his day have answered 
it. It was the problem not only of the nature and origin 
of knowledge but of the nature and origin of religious knowl- 
edge in particular, and of the relation between religious and 
all other kinds of knowledge. 

After Kant there were two men who stood out from all 
others as epoch-making contributors to modern religious 
thought — Schleiermacher and Ritschl. There were many 
other first-rank thinkers who made greater or lesser con- 
tributions, but these men united in themselves, as no others 
did, the prevailing philosophical tendencies, and turned 
them to account in religious thought. 

Schleiermacher. — In a study of Schleiermacher (i 768-1834) 
the student should take into account the very diverse influ- 
ences which shaped his education and thought — his early 
Moravian schooling, the friendship and writings of the 
Romanticists, the Pantheistic philosophy of Spinoza, the 
critical philosophy of Kant, and the faith-philosophy of 
Hamann and Jacobi. From all these sources he drew some- 
thing. But the combination and use he made of them were his 
own. His supreme interest was in religion, not in philosophy. 
In an age which was inclined to hold religion in contempt, and 
to array scientific knowledge and philosophical reflection 
against it, he sought a defense for it. To this end he pre- 
pared the epoch-making Reden for the ''cultured despisers of 
religion," and so defined religion as to give it an independent 



456 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

basis in the nature of man. This was his great contribution — 
a new definition, a new conception of what rehgion was. 
It was not something secondary, derivative, subject to the 
fluctuations or even the opposition of science and philosophy, 
but it was native to the human soul, both independent of and 
before either science or philosophy. He identified religion 
with the original endowments of human nature and integrated 
it with the whole of life. It was a fact, like any other scien- 
tific fact, a personal experience of the soul; thus he reconciled 
the conflict between faith and knowledge, between science 
and religion, between the secular and the sacred, and '^sought 
to prepare a way in which Christianity and the highest culture 
might walk together in harmony." But he also prepared the 
way for the modern grounding of religion in experience and 
for the study of it as a scientific phenomenon. 

Literature. — The student will find the fundamental religious phi- 
losophy of Schleiermacher in his Reden and Glauhenslehre. The former 
has been translated by John Oman under the title On Religion (London : 
Kegan Paul, Trench, 1893). The latter has been abridged and freely 
rendered by George Cross, with a valuable historical "Introduction" 
and a closing "Estimate," under the title The Theology of Schleiermacher 
(Chicago: . The University of Chicago Press, 191 1). The student 
should not fail to read the latest special survey of the life and teaching 
of Schleiermacher by Selbie, Schleiermacher: A Critical and Historical 
Study (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1913). 

Ritschl. — Ritschl (1822-89) dealt with the same problem 
of the relation between faith and knowledge, between science 
and religion, that Kant and Schleiermacher had faced. He 
was governed by the same motive of reconciling them, and 
followed, in general, the same method of reconciliation. His 
solution of the problem consisted in a new definition of religion 
on the basis of Kant's and Schleiermacher 's contributions. 
He combined with them, however, related suggestions from 
Herbart and Lotze. With Ritschl the philosophy of religion 
which has steadily developed from Kant and the faith philoso- 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 457 

phers through Schleiermacher in the direction of a subjective, 
independent basis for religion, and of a sharp distinction 
between religious and scientific knowledge, has come to its 
final expression in a conception of religion as a ''value- 
judgment." Out of this conception have grown the latest 
developments in the field of religious philosophy. This 
Kant-Schleiermacher-Ritschlian conception has been the 
most common defense of religion against science, and the 
ground of their separation and freedom. 

Literature. — On the relation of modern philosophy to modern Chris- 
tianity in general the student should consult McGiffert, The Rise of 
Modern Religious Ideas (New York: Macmillan, 1915), and Protestant 
Thought before Kant (New York: Scribner, 191 1); E. C. Moore, Chris- 
tian Thought since Kant (New York: Scribner, 19 12); G. P. Fisher, 
History of Christian Doctrine, pp. 269-557 (New York: Scribner, 1896); 
A. V. G. Allen, The Continuity of Christian Thought, pp. 307-438 (Boston: 
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1897) ; J. H. Dorner, Geschichte der protestantischen 
T heolo gie {Stuttga.vt: Cotta, 1868; English -translation by Robson and 
Taylor, History of Protestant Theology [Edinburgh: Clark, 18 71]); Otto 
Pfleiderer, Religionsphilosophie auf geschichtlicher Grundlage (Berlin: 
Reimer, 1878; English translation. The Philosophy of Religion, on the 
Basis of Its History, 3 vols. [London: Williams & Norgate, 1886]), and 
The Development of Theology in Germany since Kant (New York: Mac- 
millan, 1890); Windelband, A History of Philosophy, pp. 348-681, trans- 
lation by J. H. Tufts (New York: Macmillan, 1901); Josiah Royce, The 
Spirit of Modern Philosophy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1892); 
R. B. Perry, Present Philosophical Tendencies (New York: Longmans, 
Green, & Co., 1912); articles on "Deism," "The Enlightenment," 
''Rationalism and Supernaturalism," "Schleiermacher," "Ritschl," in 
the New Schajff-Herzog Encyclopedia, 12 vols. (New York: Funk & 
Wagnalls Co., 1908). 

On rationalism and its relation to religious thought, in addition to 
relative sections in the foregoing literature, read C. Beard, The Reforma- 
tion of the Sixteenth Century in Relation to Modern Thought, the Hibbert 
Lectures for 1883 (London: WiUiams & Norgate, 1883), in which the 
attitude of the reformers toward reason is treated; TuUoch, Rational 
Theology in England in the Seventeenth Century, 2 vols. (London: Black- 
woods, 1886), which deals with the Latitudinarians and the Cambridge 
Platonists; Leslie Stephen, History of English Thought in the Eighteenth 



458 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Century (London: Smith & Elder, 1876), which deals with the Deists; 
Benn, History of Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century (London: Long- 
mans, Green, & Co., 1906). 

For Kant, besides the general works above named, consult F. 
Paulsen, Immanuel Kant, His Life and Doctrine (New York: Scribner, 
1902). 

For Schleiermacher consult G. Cross, The Theology of Schleiermacher 
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 19 n); W. B. Selbie, 
Schleiermacher: A Critical and Historical Study (New York: Dutton, 
19 13), which is the latest and best special treatise in English. A fuller 
bibliography is given in the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia and in 
Cross's book. 

For Ritschl consult A. E. Garvie, The Ritschlian Theology (Edin- 
burgh: Clark, 1899) (if is ''the standard discussion," says the following 
author); R. Mackintosh, Alhrecht Ritschl and His School (London: 
Chapman & Hall, 19 15); Swing, The Theology of Alhrecht Ritschl (New 
York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1901); J. Orr, The Ritschlian Theology 
and the Evangelical Faith (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1907); J. K. 
Mozley, Ritschlianism (London: Nisbet, 1909); E. A. Edgehill, Faz'/A 
and Fact: A Study of Ritschlianism (London: MacmUlan, 19 10); J. 
Wendland, Alhrecht Ritschl und seine Schiller (Berlin: Reimer, 1899). 

IV. THE HISTORICAL MOVEMENT 

Until very recent times the entire course of human his- 
tory has been treated by historians as if it were under the 
guidance of a supernatural agency. Even after political 
history ceased to be treated from the point of view that 
postulated a ruling Providence in its course, religious history 
was still regarded as providential and exempt from the 
natural conditions of other history. Its literature, insti- 
tutions, and events were held to have been divinely shaped 
into the forms which they have assumed. 

The genetic treatment of history. — The tendency to treat 
the literature and institutions of religious history as natural 
developments out of historical conditions is what is meant by 
the historical movement. It is the principle of natural 
causation — the scientific method — applied to religious litera- 
,ture and history. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 459 

Development of historical method. — The historical method 
has been gradually developed since the fifteenth century 
through the discovery and application of the following prin- 
ciples : the principle of historical correlation or correspondence; 
the principle of historical development; and the principle of 
historical uniformity. These principles are the presupposi- 
tions of all modern historical research and interpretation. 

The principle of historical correlation. — ^All modern scien- 
tific historical scholars now take for granted the principle of 
the historical correlation of contemporaneous and consecu- 
tive events and processes. Things happen in history in rela- 
tion to other things and bear the marks of those relations. 
It is assumed that persons, documents, and events are made 
under given conditions of time and place, and that they will 
invariably bear the markings of their time and place. They 
are correlated and will therefore correspond to each other. 
The older historical research and interpretation, which 
were under the influence of the supernaturalistic or provi- 
dential presupposition, treated religious and much political 
history as out of all relation to conditions of time and place. 
This principle is the essence of the procedure of determining 
the date, authority, and genuineness of historical documents. 

The principle of historical correlation was recognized in 
the literary criticism of Greek and Roman scholars, but after 
their time it disappeared from use until the fifteenth century. 
Its employment by Valla and others in the fifteenth century 
inaugurated the modern historical movement. 

The principle of historical development.— The principle of 
historical development gradually made its appearance during 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This principle 
assumes that everything historical — ^nature, man, society, 
language, literature, law, government, morality, and religion, 
with all their institutions — -passes through a process of 
growth from simple, embryonic beginnings, and that every- 
thing is governed in this process by the properties of its own 



460 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

nature and the conditions relative to it. It is really the 
principle of correlation applied to successive stages of the 
same changing organism. 

The principle of historical uniformity. — The principle of 
historical uniformity was the last to receive recognition in 
the development of historical research. It assumes, like 
the doctrine of uniformism in geology, that the causes, forces, 
and processes with which the historian has to do in the past 
are identical with the causes, forces, and processes which are 
in operation at the present time. Human history, it is 
assumed, has always been the same as it is today. The 
apparent differences between events in the past and present 
are due, not to real differences in what took place, but to a 
difference of interpretation. The tendency in many past 
periods, as in many present stages of culture, has been to 
interpret events supernaturally; the same events are inter- 
preted at present, and in advanced stages of culture, on a 
basis of natural occurrence. It is the recognition of the reign 
of natural law in history as in nature. Hence the modern 
historian attempts to explain past events in the light of 
present events, governed always, however, by the particular 
evidences in the case. This principle has received special 
application in the case of myths, legends, and miracles in his- 
tory, and also in the case of the study of comparative religion. 
Joined with the developmental principle, it has formed the 
basis for a unification of the religious phenomena of all 
periods and peoples. The principle is really grounded in the 
conceptions of the continuity of history and of the unity of 
the race. 

The historical study of the Bible. — The employment of the 
historical method in either ''secular" or ''sacred" history 
was impossible so long as historical learning was exclusively 
in the hands of the church, as it was during the mediaeval 
period, or even so long as it was under the influence of theo- 
logical motives, as it was until the close of the eighteenth 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 461 

century. But the employment of the historical method in 
the study of bibhcal or '' sacred" literature and history was 
delayed, through the dogmatic belief in the inspired and 
providential nature of that literature and history, long 
after other fields of history had admitted it. And even then 
the earliest apphcation of the method to biblical literature 
was undertaken by scholars outside of orthodox religious 
circles at great risk to reputation and well-being ; and only in 
the last decade or two has it been possible to take this step 
with entire immunity from persecution. 

The method has, however, steadily won its way to favor — 
even in religious circles which repudiated it as ''infidel" a 
generation ago — through sheer force of discovered facts, of the 
confirmations of archaeology and the comparative sciences, 
and of the general spread of the rational spirit of veracity. 
The struggle for the right of free historical investigation in 
every realm of Christian literature and history has cost more 
than a hundred years of effort in the face of the bitterest 
opposition and not a few "martyrs" to the cause. 

History of biblical criticism. — Turning now to the rise and 
progress of the historical movement in religious literature and 
history, the student should give special attention to the influ- 
ence of Humanism, the Reformation, rationalism, the idealistic 
philosophy, and evolutionary science. 

The movement began with Valla (1405-57), Erasmus 
1466-1536), and other Humanists in an application of the 
critico-historical methods known to them to classical litera- 
ture, then to ecclesiastical documents, and finally to bibli- 
cal literature. Their work was largely confined to textual 
criticism. The Reformation quickly checked this movement 
in the direction of biblical criticism, but promoted it in 
application to the history and documents of mediaeval 
Catholicism. 

The rise of rationalism prepared the way for the applica- 
tion of historical methods to biblical literature. Benedict 



462 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Spinoza (1632-77) was one of the first in modem times to 
discover the intimate relation between biblical literature and 
its contemporaneous history. He anticipated, in his Tractatus 
theologico-politicus, the most modern conception of the depend- 
ence of the interpreter upon a knowledge of the history of 
Scripture. On the basis of this principle he denied the 
Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, and thus inaugurated 
the modern historico-critical study of Scripture. 

The denial of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch by 
Spinoza, Hobbs, Simon, and others led to the discovery of 
the '' documentary hypothesis" by Jean Astruc (1684-1749). 
Out of this discovery has grown, after many modifications, 
the modern analysis of the Old Testament. The most 
important contributions to this phase of Old Testament study 
were made by J. G. Eichhorn (1752-1822), the first to give 
to the method the name "higher criticism"; J. A. Ernesti 
(r7o7-8i), who opposed the allegorical method of interpreta- 
tion with the conception of ''one literal sense" and declared 
"the Bible should be interpreted as any other book"; J. D. 
Michaelis (17 17-91), who was the first to attempt an inter- 
pretation of the laws and history of Israel as a natural 
political rather than providential religious phenomenon; and 
Alexander Geddes (173 7- 180 2), who modified the "docu- 
mentary theory" by the so-called "fragment theory" and 
extended the analytical documentary method to the entire 
Pentateuch and to other books of the Bible. 

Historical criticism of the Old Testament. — A new epoch 
in bibhcal study opened with the discovery of the principle of 
historical development. It arose outside the field of biblical 
study, but it was immediately applied to biblical literature 
and history. The idea of development in nature and in 
history had taken possession of the most diverse circles of 
thought during the eighteenth century. It was to be found 
among scientists, philosophers, poets, archaeologists, philolo- 
gists, and historians. They were all working with it. The 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 463 

common illustration of it was the various stages of human 
life from infancy to old age. Such is the history of the race, 
they said. But it remained for Darwin and the evolutionary 
scientists to make the complete demonstration of it, and to 
establish it as a fixed presupposition in every field of historical 
as well as scientific investigation. Gunkel remarks: "It 
was the great idealistic poets and thinkers of Germany who 
originated this conception of history, and great masters, such 
as Vatke, Baur, Wellhausen, and Harnack, have transferred it 
to the sphere of religion." 

No conception of history has meant so much for modern 
Christian scholarship as this one, especially in the genetic 
form which it has assumed more recently through the influ- 
ence of evolutionary science. 

Among the first to apply the idea of development, as 
stages of growth, to the history of Israel was Lessing (1729- 
81); but the first to make this idea the basis of a critical 
investigation and reconstruction of the literature and his- 
tory of Israel was Wilhelm Vatke (1806-82). The course 
of Old Testament criticism since 1835, the date of the publica- 
tion of Vatke 's work, has followed the direction taken by 
him. Its task has been to determine the order of develop- 
ment in the religious life and institutions of Israel, and, 
on the basis of this order, to reconstruct the facts of the date 
and authorship of Old Testament books. 

The study of Old Testament literature has thus termi- 
nated in a study of the life, ideas, customs, and institutions 
embraced by it or contemporary with it as a condition of 
understanding the literature itself. The principle of develop- 
ment belongs first of all to history and then to the literature 
as a record, a reflection, and a product of the history. History 
is primary and original; literature is secondary and derivative. 
Biblical interpretation limited to a study of the literature alone 
soon ran its course and discovered its dependence upon history. 
This is the principle of the historical method; and it was in 



464 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

this form that bibHcal study produced such startling results 
during the nineteenth century. 

Historical criticism of the New Testament. — The his- 
torical method began to be applied to the New Testament by 
Semler (1725-91), and he was followed by Eichhorn and 
De Wette in the employment of the same methods. Two 
events occurred in 1835, however, which make this an epoch- 
making date in the historical study of the New Testament: 
the publication of the Lehen Jesu by Strauss, and of the work 
on the Pastoral Epistles by F. C. Baur. As in the field of 
Old Testament study, so in the New, the attention of scholars 
was steadily forced to focus upon the persons, ideas, and 
institutions involved in the literature, or contemporary 
with it, as a condition of understanding the literature itself. 
It was this which led to that most characteristic phase of the 
historical movement during the nineteenth century — the study 
of the life of Jesus. Just what its course of development 
was and what it achieved for the modern understanding of 
Jesus has been carefully traced and explained by Weinel and 
Schweitzer. 

The critical study of church history. — Coincident with 
its rise in the study of Old and New Testament history and 
literature the. historical method began to be applied, with 
epoch-making results, first to early church history by Baur 
and Hatch, and then to the entire field of church history, 
including both doctrine and institution, by such leaders as 
Ranke, Ritschl, Harnack, and Sohm. 

Toward the close of the nineteenth century the influence 
of historical investigation in the field of comparative religion 
began to dominate the study of Hebrew and Christian origins 
and gave rise to the so-called religionsgeschichtliche Schule, 
which places the emphasis upon the comparative method and 
upon the genetic aspects of development.. Historical events 
have a genealogy; they are not only modified by contempo- 
rary conditions, but grow out of antecedent forms. Hermann 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 465 

Gunkel, in his paper before the BerHn Congress of Liberal 
Christianity in 19 10, to which the student is especially referred, 
declared that this new tendency in historical investigation 
was not entirely new, but "sl new wave " upon " the surface of 
of the historical stream . ' ' The ground- though t, he said , which 
at the present day '^ rules all true historical investigation" is 
^' that the spiritual life of mankind is a unity, and that it is, by 
a certain orderly arrangement, bound together as a whole. 
.... Everything has come into being by a continuing 
process, each with its own special character and yet in some 
measure to be brought into comparison with the rest." 

Literature. — On the origin and development of the modern historical 
movement in general, E. Fueter, Geschichte der Neuen Historiographie 
(Munich: Oldenburg, 19 n), is the latest and best history of historical 
writings from the fifteenth century to the present time. It covers both 
secular and religious historiography, but chiefly secular. G. P. Gooch, 
History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century (New York: Longmans, 
Green, & Co., 1913), is a brilliant work, dealing almost wholly with 
secular historical writing. See also R. Flint, History of the Philosophy 
of History (New York: Scribner, 1894). 

On the method of procedure in modern historical research in general, 
E. Bernheim, Lehrhuch der historischen Methode und der Geschichts- 
philosophie (Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1908), deals briefly with 
the history of historical writing and with the philosophy of history, as 
well as with the method. See also Langlois and Seignobos, Introduction 
to the Study of History (London: Duckworth, 1898); and J. M. Vincent, 
Historical Research (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 191 1). 

On the method of historical research and the history of its applica- 
tion to biblical literature and history in part or as a whole consult A. C. 
Zenos, The Elements of the Higher Criticism (New York: Funk & Wag- 
nails Co., 1895); H. S. Nash, The History of the Higher Criticism of the 
New Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1900); Otto Pfleiderer, The 
Development of Theology, pp. 209-77 (New York: Macmillan, 1890); F. 
Lichtenberger, History of German Theology in the Nineteenth Century, 
PP- 374-420 (Edinburgh: Clark, 1889); T. K. Cheyne, Founders of Old 
Testament Criticism (New York: Scribner, 1893); Die Religion in Ge- 
schichte und Gegenwart, article "Bibelwissenschaft"; A. D. White, A 
History of the Warfare of Science with Theology, II, 288-396 (New York : 
Applet on, 1898). 



466 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

On the historical study of the Hfe of Jesus and of early Christianity 
consult A. Schweitzer, Von Reimarus zu Wrede; eine Geschichte der Leben- 
Jesu Forschung (Tubingen: Mohr, 1906; English translation by Mont- 
gomery, The Quest of the Historical Jesus [London: Black, 19 10]); H. 
Weinel, Jesus im neunzehnten Jahrhundert (Tubingen: Mohr, 1904; 
2d ed., 1907); H. Weinel and A. G. Widgery, Jesus in the Nineteenth 
Century and After (Edinburgh: Clark, 1914); M. Jones, The New Testa- 
ment in the Twentieth Century (London: Macmillan, 19 14). 

For the rise of the historical method in the study of church history 
consult F. C. Baur, Die Epochen der kirchlichen Geschichtsschreibung 
(Tubingen: Fues, 1852); Brsitke, Wegweiser zur Quellenkunde der Kirch- 
engeschichte (Gotha: Perthes, 1890); C. H. Walker, "The Trend in the 
Modern Interpretation of Early Church History," American Journal of 
Theology, XVI (1912), 614-33. See also chap, xxvi in Gooch, History 
and Historians in the Nineteenth Century (see above); and chap, iv in 
E. C. Moore, Christian Thought since Kant (New York: Scribner, 191 2). 

On the opposition in orthodox religious circles to the employment of 
the historical method in biblical and ecclesiastical history, consult A. D. 
White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology, II, 288-396 
(New York: Appleton, 1898); A. Houtin, La Question biblique chez les 
catholiques de France en XI X^ siecle (Paris: Picard, 1902), and La Ques- 
tion biblique au XX^ siecle. (P axis: Nourry, 1906); J. Kiibel, Geschichte 
des katholischen Modernismus (Tubingen: Mohr, 1909); A. Houtin, 
Histoire du modernisme catholique (FsLiis: Nourry, 19 13). 

On the application of the historical method to the study of religion 
in general (comparative religion) consult C. P. Tiele, "The Study of 
Comparative Religion," World's Parliament of Religion (Chicago: 
Parliament Pub. Co., 1893), I, 583-90. M. Jastrow, The Study of 
Religion (New York: Scribner, 1901), contains a valuable bibliography 
of the historical movement and an admirable sketch of the rise of the 
historic method in religion. See also L. H. Jordan, Comparative Religion, 
Its Genesis and Growth (New York: Scribner, 1905); the New S chaff - 
Herzog Encyclopedia, article "Comparative Religion"; Die Religion in 
Geschichte und Gegenwart, article " Religionsgeschichte und Religions- 
geschichtliche Schule"; M. Reischle, Theologie und Religions geschichte 
(Tubingen: Mohr, 1904); H. Gunkel, "The History of Religion and 
Old Testament Criticism," Congress of Free Christianity, Berlin, 1910, 
pp. 114-26 (London: Williams & Norgate, 191 1). 

V. THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT 

The phrase ''social movement" has come into general use 
to designate the modern movement toward the political 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 467 

enfranchisement and the social betterment of the masses of 
the people. 

The sense of social responsibility. — Out of the movement 
has grown the sense of social responsibility which is so 
dominant an element in modern Christianity. By social 
responsibility is meant the obligation, not only to save the 
human soul in a future world, but to save the human being — 
body, mind, and soul — in the present world. In other words, 
modern Christianity has identified itself with the present 
cultural task of civilization, believing that this belongs to 
the purpose of Christ and to the scope of the Kingdom 
of Heaven. In this study the student has to do with 
tracing the historic origin and development of this peculiar 
trend of modern civilization and of its coalescence with 
Christianity. 

Elements of the social consciousness. — If one should take 
a cross-sectional view of the movement at the present time, 
with a view to distinguishing the elements that enter into it, 
he would discover, among the more conspicuous, the following 
historical elements: a primitive Christian element, which 
contributes a new conception of the worth and dignity of man 
as related to God and to his fellow-man; a humanistic 
element, which emphasizes the worth of man as man and of the 
present order; a democratic element, which emphasizes the 
dignity and capacity of mau as a self-governing political 
being; a rationalistic element, which emphasizes the sover- 
eignty and trustworthiness of the mind of man; and a humani- 
tarian element, which emphasizes the supreme sanctity of 
all human life. All of these elements are closely related in 
meaning and testify to the presence of a single growing 
conviction which is the common root of all of them — the 
supreme worth of man as man in his present state of existence. 
This is in effect the controlling idea of the modern social 
movement, and should be used by the student as its distin- 
guishing mark. Wherever there has appeared in modern 
history a tendency to exalt the worth of the individual or to 



468 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

improve the lot of the masses there should be recognized a 
contribution to the social movement. 

Sources of the social movement. — It will be found that 
Contributions to the social movement have come from very 
diverse sources — from politics, religion, and philosophy, 
from science and industry, and from literature and art. Every 
current of modern civilization has borne some contribution 
to the worth of man. If one were to make an exhaustive 
study of all the influences which have helped to create the 
social movement it would involve a complete history of 
the modern world — a complete account of modern progress. 
It is pre-eminently the distinctive work and the product of 
modern civilization. 

The modern social movement has unfolded through the 
reciprocal influence of several parallel and yet fairly distinct 
phases of human activity, each of which has embodied some 
principle of social ideahsm and contributed some decisive 
influence to the total result. The student will be enabled 
to see more clearly the development in process if it is resolved 
into the following separate phases: the pohtical phase, the 
philanthropic phase, the industrial phase, the sociahstic 
phase, the literary phase, and the religious phase. But 
the student should be reminded again that these phases are 
interwoven in a common process; that they are but parts 
of a larger whole, like the separate strands in a single cable; 
and, still further, that they did not take form apart from 
each other or in a vacuum, but in a common social medium 
which determined their likeness. They are children of one 
social parentage and were brought up together. 

While the student is chiefly concerned in this study with 
the religious phase, he must remember that it cannot be 
explained without a study of all the other phases with which 
it has been interwoven in its development. No adequate 
treatment of all these phases in their mutual relations and 
influences has appeared in print. The general surveys which 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 469 

have been made, such as those by Kidd and Nash, are more 
philosophical and apologetic than historical. The student is 
compelled to seek his information in treatises on the separate 
phases of the movement, and to be constantly making his 
own correlations between them. 

In a study of the religious phase of the social movement 
the student will observe that modern Christianity has com- 
pletely identified itself, both in theory and in practice, with 
modern social ideals and aims. The gospel of Jesus has been 
completely transformed into a social gospel by many influ- 
ential interpreters, and the foremost enterprises of the modern 
church are gradually taking on the form of social enterprises. 
The problem of the student is to ascertain how and when this 
humanitarian element, this ethico-social emphasis, found its 
way into modern Christianity. 

The socializing of modem Christianity. — Stated briefly 
and generally, it may be said that, in becoming ethico- 
social, modern Christianity has simply followed the course 
of modern ethical development. As modern ethics has 
passed from the authoritative to the experimental and 
from the individualistic to the social, so has modern Chris- 
tianity. (Dewey and Tufts have given in outline the nature 
and course of this development in their work entitled Ethics 
[New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1908]). This is merely 
to state again the guiding principle of this study, namely, 
that modern Christianity has been an integral part of the 
modern social process, and as such has beefi both cause and 
effect, creator and creature, of that process. Christianity 
has simply kept abreast of the highest ethical ideals of 
the highest modern civilization. It could do no less and 
survive. But since it has helped to create those ideals, 
it is not surprising that it has found them true to its own 
nature. 

Modern Christianity moved through two stages of devel- 
opment in becoming ethico-social: first of all there was a 



470 <JUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

development from the dogmatic to the ethical, and then 
from the ethical to the ethico-social. 

The development of Christianity from a dogmatic to an 
ethical interest. — The first stage of development was begun 
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries through the rise 
of Humanism and the Protestant Reformation. Both move- 
ments exalted the worth of the individual: the one through 
its appreciation of the natural and the human in all of its 
forms, in art and literature and thought; the other through 
its individualistic and psychical conception of salvation, its 
doctrine of the equality of believers, and its resort to the 
Scriptures. Kautsky and Bax have shown that even before 
the Reformation there was a widespread propagation of 
ethico-social ideas among the peasantry of the continent and 
of England, on the basis of an appeal to natural human rights 
and to the teaching of Scripture. This is clearly shown in the 
socialistic tendencies of the Anabaptists and of the Lollards. 

But the Reformation did not achieve at once all that its 
principles involved. Its ethico-social tendencies were counter- 
acted by other aristocratic tendencies — such as the doctrine of 
divine sovereignty and election and the acquiescence of the 
older types of Protestantism, especially Lutheranism and 
Anglicanism, in the absolutism of the civil ruler. Calvinism 
was free from this latter tendency and was more democratic; 
but it remained for later Free-church movements to make the 
greatest advances toward ethical Christianity. 

The earliest decisive contributions were made by the 
Socinians, the Arminians, and the Latitudinarians in their 
emphasis upon the authority of the human reason and the 
conditional nature of salvation. The Arminians taught 
that the divine sovereignty was conditioned by ethical prin- 
ciples and limited by an element of human freedom. Man 
took on a new importance in relation to God. The Arminians 
went even farther and declared that Christianity did not 
consist in the acceptance of revealed doctrine, but in living 
a right hfe. The human element thus became decisive. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 471 

Another movement in the direction of ethical religion was 
inaugurated by the Pietists, and was carried out by the 
Moravians and the Methodists, who united an inward, 
mystical piety with a practical devotion to the well-being of 
men, both in this world and in the world to come. The 
natural tendency of the Pietistic and Methodistic type of 
religion toward brotherly love and charity is abundantly 
illustrated in the philanthropies of Franke at Halle, the 
missionary work of the Moravians, and the outbreak of 
humanitarianism in England on the heels of the Methodist 
revival and the evangelical awakening. Hall has made a 
special study of the ethico-social influences of Methodism 
in his work on The Social Meaning of Modern Religious 
Movements in England, while North has more recently de- 
scribed ''Early Methodist Philanthropy" in the book bearing 
that title. 

The practical testing of Christianity. — But it was through 
the same religious movements that the way was being pre- 
pared for the experimental treatment of Christianity. The 
fundamental religious test of Pietism and Methodism was 
experimental — by their feelings, first of all, and then "by 
their fruits ye shall know them." As religion became 
dominantly personal and ethical it became experimental and 
practical. It was Schleiermacher who supplied the theoretical 
basis of the experimental treatment of religion in his con- 
ception of religion as a native property of the human soul. 
Religion began to be something that could be presently and 
inwardly studied and determined. God bore witness to his 
presence immediately in the soul, and the life of God in man 
was capable of demonstration. The incongruity between the 
authoritative origin and legal nature of religion and its 
experimental nature was not at first discerned. 

At the same time that the new religious movements of 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — ^Arminianism, 
Pietism, Quakerism, and Methodism — were moving in the 
direction of an ethical religion, philosophical reflection was 



472 GUIDE to STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

creating an impulse in the same direction. This was the 
trend of rationalism in its conception of a natural, innate 
morality. It tended steadily in the direction of an exalta- 
tion of the moral capacity and worth of the individual, thus 
aiding and abetting the ethical trend in religion at every step. 

The transition from an ethical to a social interest. — In 
studying the transition from the ethical to the ethico-social 
conception of Christianity the student must go outside of 
the religious movement for decisive influences. Rehgious 
thought moved strictly within philosophical and theological 
lines during the entire eighteenth and the first half o' the 
nineteenth century. But in the meantime the social impulse 
which was destined to create a new epoch *n religious thought 
and activity was gathering force in the sphere of industry. 
It appeared earliest in England; and what took place in 
England finally took place throughout Europe and America 
before the middle of the nineteenth century. It was the so- 
called ''Industrial Revolution." 

Out of the Industrial Revolution came the prophets of a 
new social order in which all human miseries should be done 
away with — Owen in England and St. Simon and Fourier in 
France. While St. Simon and others saw in a pure, primitive 
Christianity a solvent for social ills, religion had not yet been 
generally invoked on behalf of social welfare. The church 
stood with the rulers and on the side of the established 
order of things. 

The literary prophets of the social ideal. — The literary 
prophets were the connecting link between the new social 
impulses and religious thought. Vida M. Scudder has made a 
special study of the social influence of the great EngHsh 
prose writers between 1830 and 1880, to which the student is 
referred. Carlyle and Ruskin in England, Turgenieff and 
Tolstoi in Russia, and Sand and Hugo in France introduced 
the ethico-social ideal to the popular mind of the nineteenth 
century, and by making it respectable, not to say fashionable. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 473 

forced it upon the attention of . the leaders of organized 
Christianity. 

Out of this atmosphere there sprang up a Christian Socialist 
party in England among the Protestants under the leadership 
of Maurice and Kingsley, and among the Catholics of Ger- 
many under the leadership of Bishop von Ketteler. 

It began to be said openly in all religious circles, after 
the middle of the nineteenth century, first by Seeley and 
Freeman tie, and then by a host of others in the church 
in England and America, that Jesus came to save the 
whole man — body, mind, and spirit — in the present world, 
and not merely his spirit in the world to come. Thus 
the ethico-social emphasis found its way into modern 
Christianity. 

Literature. — ^For the religious phase of the social movement consult 
J. R. Seeley, Ecce Homo (London, 1865); W. H. Freemantle, The World 
as the Subject of Redemption (London: Rivington, 1885; New York: 
Longmans, Green, & Co., 1895); W. Gladden, Applied Christianity 
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1893) ; S. Mathews, The Social Teaching 
of Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 1902); R. T. Ely, Social Aspects of 
Christianity (New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1899); L. Abbott, Christ 
tianity and Social Problems (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1890); 
W. Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (New York: Mac- 
millan, 1907) ; H. C. Vedder, Socialism and the Ethics of Jesus (New 
York: Macmillan, 191 2); E. Troeltsch, Die Soziallehren der christlichen 
Kirchen und Gruppen (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 2); K. Kautsky, Der 
Kommunismus im Mittelalter und im Zeitalter der Reformation (Stuttgart : 
Dietz, 1895; English translation. Communism in Central Europe in the 
Time of the Reformation [London: Unwin, 1897]); E. B. Bax, The Social 
Side of the Reformation in Germany, 3 vols. (London: Sonnenschein, 
1894-1903) ; T. C. Hall, The Social Meaning of Modern Religious Move- 
ments in England (New York: Scribner, 1900); A. C. McGiffert, The 
Rise of Modern Religious Ideas, chap, xiii (New York: Macmillan, 1915) ; 
J. Tulloch, Movements of Religious Thought in Great Britain during the 
Nineteenth Century, 2 vols. (New York: Scribner, 1893) ; G. A. Warneck, 
Outline of the History of Protestant Missions (Edinburgh : Oliphant, 1906) ; 
J. S. Dennis, Christian Missions and Social Progress, 3 vols. (Chicago: 
Revell, 1897-1906). 



474 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

For the distinctive elements of the modern social consciousness 
consult H. C. King, Theology and the Social Consciousness (New York: 
Macmillan, 1902) ; W. Gladden, Ruling Ideas of the Present Age (Boston: 
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1895). 

For a general historical survey of the social movement as a whole 
consult B. Kidd, Social Evolution (New York: Macmillan, 1902); H. S. 
Nash, Genesis of the Social Conscience (New York: Macmillan, 1897); 
J. Dewey and J. H." Tufts, Ethics, pp. 17-197 (New York: Henry Holt & 
Co., 1908); H. C. King, The Moral and Religious Challenge of our Times 
(New York: Macmillan, 19 11); T. Ziegler, Die geistigen und sozialen 
Stromungen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (Berlin: Bondi, 1901). 

For the sociaHstic phase of the social movement, J. Rae, Contemporary 
Socialism (New York: Scribner, 1898), is a history of socialism; M, 
Hillquit, Socialism in Theory and Practice (New York: Macmillan, 1909), 
gives a sympathetic exposition of sociaHsm; R. T. Ely, Socialism and 
Social Reform (New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1894), furnishes a critical 
survey, with an extensive bibliography. See also Nitti, Catholic Socialism 
(London: Sonnenschein, 1895). 

For the literary phase of the social movement consult G. Brandes, 
Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, 6 vols. (New York: 
Macmillan, 1906) ; K. Francke, A History of German Literature as Deter- 
mined by Social Forces (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1907); V. D. 
Scudder, Social Ideals in English Letters (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 
1900) ; L. J. Wylie, Social Studies in English Literature (Boston: Hough- 
ton Mifflin Co., 19 16). 

For the industrial phase of the social movement consult A. Toynbee, 
The Industrial Revolution (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1890); 
W. Cunningham, The Industrial Revolution (Cambridge: University 
Press, 1908) ; G. H. Ferris, Industrial History of Modern England (New 
York: Henry Holt & Co., 1914); S. and B. Webb, The History of Trade 
Unionism (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1894); B. L. Hutchins 
and A. Harrison, A History of Factory Legislation (Westminster: King, 
1907); R. T. Ely, Studies in the Evolution of Industrial Society (New 
York: Macmillan, 1906); Florence Kelley, Some Ethical Gains through 
Legislation (New York: Macmillan, 1905). 

For the political phase of the social movement consult W. A. Dun- 
ning, History of Political Theories from Luther to Montesquieu (New 
York: Macmillan, 1905); D. G. Ritchie, Natural Rights (New York: 
Macmillan, 1895) ; G. L. Scherger, The Evolution of Modern Liberty (New 
York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1904); G. P. Gooch, A History of 
English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge: Uni- 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 475 

versity Press, 1898); C. E. Merriam, A History of American Political 
Theories (New York: Macmillan, 1903); P. A. R. Janet, Histoire de la 
science politique dans les rapports avec la morale (Paris: Alcan, 19 13); 
J. H. Rose, Rise of Democracy (New York: Duffield, 1904); T. E. May, 
Democracy in Europe (New York: Armstrong, 1895); E. J. Lowell, The 
Eve of the French Revolution (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1892). 

For the philanthropic phase of the social movement consult C. L. 
Brace, GejtoC/jm^^* (New York: Armstrong, 1890); 'K.A.Woods, English 
Social Movements (New York: Scribner, 1891); C. R. Henderson, The 
Social Spirit in America (Chicago: Scott, Foresman & Co., 1901), and 
Social Programmes in the West (Chicago: The University of Chicago 
Press, 1 913); C. S. Loch, Charity and Social Life (London: Macmillan, 
1910); F. H. Wines, Punishment and Reformation: An Historical Sketch 
of the Rise of the Penitentiary System (New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 
1895) ; E. M. North, Early Methodist Philanthropy (New York: Method- 
ist Book Concern, 191 5); F. Mackay, The English Poor: A Sketch of 
Their Social and Economic History (London: Murray, 1889); B. K. 
Gray, A History of English Philanthropy (Westminster: King, 1905). 

VI. THE MISSIONARY MOVEMENT 

The influence of missionary ideals on modem Christianity. 
— ^Any historical account of the origin and development of 
modern Christianity cannot overlook the influence of modern 
missions. The contact of Western Christianity with the 
non- Christian religions and peoples of the East has resulted in 
decisive modifications of modern religious thought. Modern 
Christianity would not be what it is without modern missions. 

The modification of missionary activities due to modem 
thought. — But on the other hand modern religious thought 
has been profoundly reacting upon modern missions. 
Missionary motives and methods, the entire attitude of the 
missionary toward non-Christian religions, have been under- 
going a rapid transformation during the last ten or twenty 
years. It has gradually dawned upon the entire missionary 
management, at home and abroad, that the old approach to 
non- Christian peoples, on the basis of the old religious ideas 
and methods, and in the old spirit, was one of the principal 
causes of *'the failure of modern missions." And there has 



476 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

recently appeared among missionary leaders an outspoken 
approval of, and an eager resort to, modern religious ideas 
for the solution of the most acute problems in the mission 
field. In their opinion there seems to have been a most 
providential timing of the appearance of these problems 
with the rise of modern religious thought. 

The development of a cordial attitude toward modem 
ideas. — This change has been going on quietly among a few 
missionaries for many years, but it has found no open expres- 
sion until within the last ten years. Modern religious thought 
was completely banned from missionary conferences and lit- 
erature previous to 1888. Small consideration and scant 
courtesy were shown it in the London Conference of 1888; 
slightly more consideration was shown it in the New York 
Conference of 1900; but in the meantime courage had entered 
into a few of the great leaders, and by the time of the Edin- 
burgh Conference of 19 10 they were ready to face the modern 
situation frankly and to discuss it freely. Vol. IV of the 
Report of the Edinburgh Conference is a marvelous disclosure 
of the coalescence of statesmanlike missionary conviction with 
modem religious thought. 

Factors in the broader view of missions. — The decade from 
1900 to 19 10 marks an epoch in the advancement of the 
cathohc attitude toward non-Christian religions. Several 
conditions brought this about or helped to make it possible: 
the progress of the science of comparative religion, the 
gradual triumph of modern religious ideas and the spirit of 
catholicity in the West, the sending out of a new generation 
of missionaries more or less acquainted with, if not trained in, 
the new ideas, and the discovery through actual missionary 
experience that a sympathetic, appreciative attitude toward 
the non-Christian religions was absolutely essential to mis- 
sionary success. This was the almost unanimous testimony 
of the missionaries who contributed to the Edinburgh Report. 
The tenor of all was in substance expressed by one who said : 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 477 

The missionary should rejoice in every element of truth and goodness 
that he finds in the religion and in the practice of the people with whom 
he has to deal, seeing that all truth and all goodness, wheresoever found, 
come through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, however ignorant a per- 
son may be of this source. Every religion exists by reason of the truth 
which is in it, not by virtue of its falsehood {Report, IV, 20). 

Some problems which missionaries must face. — It is 

perfectly apparent that this new attitude toward the non- 
Christian religions raises at once every problem of modern 
religious thought: the problems of the conception of revela- 
tion and of inspiration and of the authority of Scripture; of 
the conception of God and of his relation to the race; of the 
conception of Christ and of his redemptive and prophetic 
supremacy; of the conception of salvation and its conditions 
and of retribution and its nature. The epoch-making signifi- 
cance of the Edinburgh Conference was the recognition by 
its leaders and members that theological questions were for 
the missionary crucial problems, and that the only way out for 
the missionary was to think every problem through cour- 
ageously in the light of all modern knowledge and conviction. 
And the various commissions attempted to help the mis- 
sionary to do this as far as it was possible within the time 
at their disposal. 

All this mighty ferment of problems in the mission field 
has reacted upon thought and action at home. The student 
should look for the missionary influence upon modern Chris- 
tianity chiefly in the following spheres of distinctly modern 
thought and activity: comparative religion, Christian 
apologetics, the ethico-social movement, the Christian union 
movement. It is not possible to refer the student to any 
book which deals expressly with this question. 

The study pf comparative religion and missionary ideals. 
— The science of comparative religion, one of the most 
typical expressions of the historical movement, owes much 
to foreign missions — just how much it is not easy to determine. 



478 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Various opinions are held regarding this indebtedness. 
Missionary leaders and workers are inclined to overestimate 
it, while the scientists are inclined to ignore it or to under- 
estimate it. Robert E. Speer says that '^for most of its 
knowledge of the non- Christian religions and peoples the 
West is indebted to missionaries." G. T. Purves said in 
the New York Conference of 1900 that Christian missions 
have '^made possible the science of comparative religion." 

Literature. — Materials for a study of this question may be found 
in Jordan's works on comparative religion and in the New Schaff-Herzog 
Encyclopedia, article "Comparative Religion," with selected bibliog- 
raphy. Important sources for such a study would lie in missionary 
biography and history. There is no work on this question so far as I 
know. 

While the comparison of religions is one of the first and 
most important tasks of the missionary (and a few mis- 
sionaries have done creditable scientific work in this field), 
yet the range and purpose of that comparison are quite 
different from those of the pure scientists. A distinction 
is to be made between the materials of the science and the 
treatment of those materials. While the missionaries have 
added greatly to the knowledge of oriental religions, their 
method of treatment has been apologetic rather than scientific. 

On the other hand, there is no uncertainty as to the indebt- 
edness of missionaries to the science of comparative religion, 
but it has not been possible frankly to acknowledge it and 
take advantage of it until very recently. Commission IV of 
the Edinburgh Conference said: 

The conclusion is surely inevitable that provision should be made 
for thorough teaching in comparative religion in all our colleges and 
training institutes. A new instrument of spiritual culture and propa- 
ganda has been put into the hands of the church by the progress of this 
science, and it is surely a plain duty to use it. 

A new apologetic for Christianity. — The twentieth century 
is face to face with the need of a new Christian apologetic. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 479 

This new need has been precipitated partly by the develop- 
ment of modern science, modern philosophy, and modern 
society, but also partly by modern missions. Just as the 
new discoveries in modern science compelled a reconstruction 
of Christian apologetics in the light of the new scientific facts, 
so the discoveries of missionaries in contact with the non- 
Christian religions has compelled a reconstruction of Chris- 
tian apologetics in the light of the new religious facts. It is a 
new religious world into which the missionary and the com- 
parative religionist have introduced modern Christianity, and 
it has had to be reckoned with. 

Literature. — Religious literature during the last ten or fifteen years 
has grown rich with successive efforts to restate the Christian apology 
from the point of view of some one of the ethnic faiths. Notable among 
these are the Haskell lecturers, Barrows and Hall, and the books by 
Knox, Hume, Lucas, Hogg, and Moulton. See bibliography, p. 481. 

In contact with new races, new societies, new religious 
beliefs, and new civilizations Christianity is undergoing new 
tests, and it is being compelled to reshape its message and 
redefine its essence. There has gradually arisen the outline of 
a new apologetic whose fundamental postulates are a uni- 
versally immanent, ethical God and an organically related and 
growing world. 

The need of social salvation. — Modern missions have 
greatly reinforced the ethico-social movement in the West. 
It may be said that the foreign missionary was really the first 
to go into ethico-social work with the gospel and the 
first to discover the social nature of Christianity. From the 
moment that he has set foot upon heathen soil he has been 
confronted with a social barrier to the acceptance of the 
Gospel. The most painful problems of the foreign missionary 
have been those growing out of the differences between the 
social ideals of Jesus and the social customs of heathenism. 
This fact has raised one of the most keenly debated questions 
in modern missionary policy: whether it is the business of 



48o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

the missionary to evangelize the heathen or to Christianize 
heathendom. Missionaries have always realized the need of 
transforming the society as a means of saving the souls of the 
heathen. Thus foreign missions have constituted by neces- 
sity a vast social philanthropy. 

The ethico-social results of foreign missions have been 
from the beginning the most convincing argument in the mis- 
sionary apologetic. Unconscious of the support which the 
propaganda of missions at the home base was giving to the 
social movement, every missionary sermon or appeal has 
steadily added to the ethico-social emphasis of modern 
Christianity. Since the unsurpassed work of Dennis in 
collecting and arraying the social results of missionary 
work, no one has doubted the social nature and the social 
value of Christianity. 

In the foreign field, missionary work has assumed every 
form of social and personal philanthropy — ^medical, educa- 
tional, charitable, and industrial. 

Literature. — ^The attention of the student is especially directed to the 
works of Dennis, Capen, and Faunce. There is a valuable annotated 
bibliography in the work by Faunce and very elaborate though not 
carefully selected bibliographies appended to each lecture in the work 
by Dennis. See bibliography, p. 481. 

The movement toward Christian union. — The spirit of 
catholicity is a characteristic product of the modern mis- 
sionary movement. It appears not only in the modem mis- 
sionaries' attitude toward non- Christian religions, but in 
their attitude toward each other's denominational beliefs 
and practices. In the presence of a vast heathenisrri the 
missionaries of all denominations are compelled to draw 
together. 

The most urgent appeal for Christian union, during the 
past generation, has come from the mission field. The 
movement began with a feeling of the need of Christian 
comity, and rose to a desire for federation; and in many 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 481 

places it has developed into a demand for organic union. 
Various forms of co-operation have been entered into, usually 
between churches of the same denominational type. Some 
of the constitutions of these unions may be found in the 
appendixes of Vol. VIII of the Edinburgh Report. The 
entire volume is given up to the report of the Commission on 
Co-operation and the Promotion of Unity, and is the most 
important appeal for Christian union ever sent out to a divided 
Christendom. 

All the great missionary conferences during the last fifty 
years have laid emphasis upon the need of union, and the 
amount of time devoted to the question has steadily increased 
with each succeeding conference. 

It is conceded that the greatest obstacle to the union of the 
churches in the foreign field is the opposition of the churches 
at home. In the face of this insistent demand of missionaries 
for freedom to unite their forces, the churches at home have 
been compelled to take up the problem of Christian union 
and to moderate their sectarian attitude toward their sister 
denominations. The first significant response to this demand 
has been the organization of the Federal Council of Churches 
of Christ in America. The student will find the best dis- 
cussions of the relation of foreign missions to the Christian 
union movement in the reports of the various missionary 
conferences and in the reports of the meetings of the Federal 
Council. 

Literature. — ^For the relation of missions to modem religious thought 
and to the new apologetic consult W. N. Clarke, A Study of Missions 
(New York: Scribner, 1900); R. A. Hume, Missions from the Modern 
View (New York: Revell, 1905); A. E. Garvie, The Missionary Obliga- 
tion in the Light of Changes of Modern Thought (London: Hodder & 
Stoughton, 1904); B. Lucas, The Empire of Christ (London: Macmillan, 
1908); W. O. Carver, Missions and Modern Thought (New York: Mac- 
millan, 1910); T. E. Slater, Higher Hinduism in Relation to Christianity 
(London: Stock, 1902); C. C. Hall, Christ and the Human Race: ory 
The Attitude of Jesus Christ toward Foreign Races and Religions (Boston: 



482 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Houghton Mifflin Co., 1906), and Christ and the Eastern Soul (Chicago: 
The University of Chicago Press, 1909); J. H. Barrows, The Christian 
Conquest of Asia (New York: Scribner, 1899); A. G. Hogg, Karma and 
Redemption: An Essay toward the Interpretation of Hinduism and the 
Restatement of Christianity (London: Christian Literature Soc, 1909); 
J. H. Moulton, Religions and Religion (London: Kelley, 1913); J. 
Warneck, The Living Forces of the Gospel (Edinburgh: OHphant, 1909); 
D. C. Macintosh, ''The New Christianity and World-Conversion," 
American Journal of Theology, XVIII (July and October, 19 14), 337-54 
and 553-70; C. H. Robinson, An Interpretation of the Character of Christ 
to Non-Christian Races: An Apology for Christian Missions (London: 
Longmans, Green, & Co., 1913); Reports of missionary conferences: 
London, 1888, II, 89-100 (New York: Revell, 1888); New York, 1900, 
I> 347~77 (New York: American Tract Soc, 1900); Edinburgh, 1910, 
IV (New York: Revell, 19 10). Missionary magazines, such as The 
East and the West and The International Review of Missions, contain 
many valuable articles showing the modern trend of missionary thought 
and activity. 

For the relation of foreign missions to the science of comparative 
religion consult L. H. Jordan, Comparative Religion: Its Genesis and 
Growth (New York: Scribner, 1905), and Comparative Religion: Its 
Adjuncts and ^//^'e^ (London: Milford, 191 5). 

For the relation of missions to the ethico-social movement consult 
J. S. Dennis, Christian Missions and Social Progress, 3 vols. (New York: 
Revell, 1897); W. D. Mackenzie, Christianity and the Progress of Man 
(New York: Revell, 1898); J. L. Barton, Human Progress through 
Missions (New York: Revell, 19 12); E. W. Capen, Sociological Progress 
in Mission Lands (New York: Revell, 19 14); W. H. P. Faunce, The 
Social Aspects of Foreign Missions (New York: Missionary Education 
Movement, 19 14). 

For the relation of missions to Christian union consult Church Feder- 
ation, pp. 251-94, 333-55 (New York: Revell, 1906); Federal Council of 
the Churches of Christ in America, Philadelphia, 1908 (New York : Revell) ; 
Christian Unity at Work, pp. 81-107 (New York: Federal Council 
of Churches, 1913); Reports of missionary conferences: London, 1888, 1, 
91-109; 11,429-87; New York, 1900, 1, 233-77; Edinburgh, 19 10, VIII; 
R. E. Speer, Christianity and the Nations, chap, vi, "The Relation of 
Missions to the Unity of the Church" (New York: Revell, 1910); 
J. S. Dennis, The Modern Call of Missions, chap, ix, "Union Movements 
in Mission Fields" (New York: Revell, 1913); A. J. Brown, Unity afid 
Missions (New York: Revell, 1915). 



IX. SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN 

ETHICS 

By GERALD BIRNEY SMITH 
Professor of Christian Theology in the Divinity School, University of Chicago 



ANALYSIS 

Introduction: The Task of Systematic Theology .... 485-486 

I. The- Method of Theological Inquiry. — ^The fundamental issue 
in modern theology, — Orthodoxy and modernism. — ^The appeal to 
authority vs. the method of free inquiry. — The religious value of 
critical honesty. — The outcome of the historical study of Chris- 
tianity. — ^The nature of a vital theology 486-494 

II. How Shall the Content of Christianity Be Determined? — 
The Catholic method of determining the content of Christianity. — 
Protestant orthodoxy. — "Liberal" orthodoxy. — ^The appeal to 
Christian experience. — The Ritschlian theology. — ^The modem- 
positive school of theology. — ^Theology and idealistic philosophy. — 

The definition of Christianity from the historical point of view . 494-508 

III. The Main Doctrinal Problems, — ^The meaning of reUgion. — 
The Christian doctrine of God. — ^A vital faith during theological 
reconstruction. — What do we mean by salvation? — ^The problem 
of sin. — Religious experience as a natural development. — ^The need of 
a revised theological vocabulary, — The relation between the concep- 
tion of salvation and the doctrine of the person of Christ. — The mod- 
em interpretation of Jesus. — The need of a positive understanding of 

the new interest. — The Christian life. — ^The Christian hope . . 508-540 

IV. The Truth of Christian Beliefs.— Tho^ defense brought by the 
authority type of theology. — ^The modern conception of apologetics. — 

1. The so-called "conflict between science and reUgion," — The need 
of cultivating the scientific spirit. — ^The rights of religious faith. 

2. The ontological problem. — The problem of religious certainty. — 
The type of assurance compatible with the scientific spirit. — ^3, The 
problem of the supernatural, — Can we draw a line between the 
natural and the supernatural? — Emphasis on quality rather than 
origin. — The real rehgious interest. — 4, The problem of the absolute- 
ness of Christianity. — The conception of revelation tested by his- 
torical fact. — The appeal to a metaphysical absolute. — Christianity 
as a developing historical religion. — 5. Christianity and other reli- 
gions, — The modern attempt to appreciate foreign faiths . . . 541-561 

V. Christian Ethics. — The historical evolution of Christian 
ethics. — ^The ethical ideal of the primitive Christians. — The sub- 
ordination of ethical to theological interest. — The Catholic concep- 
tion of ethics. — The ethics of Protestantism. — ^The need for a new 
conception of Christian ethics. — The study of psychology and of soci- 
ology. — The spirit of Christian ethics . . . . . . . 561-577 



IX. SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN 

ETHICS 

INTRODUCTION 

What is the task of systematic theology? — Interesting 
as is the history of Christianity, the primary concern of most 
men is with their own religious problems and beliefs. In so far 
as a study of history can aid in answering questions of present- 
day life it is eagerly used. But every age — ^indeed, every 
individual — has pecuhar circumstances to face, and because of 
these has peculiar questionings. It is the task of the depart- 
ment of systematic theology to deal with the vital religious 
beliefs of living men, to appreciate and to interpret the 
questionings of contemporaneous thinking, and to formulate 
the convictions which a Christian has a right to hold in the 
light of the actual conditions of religious thinking and living. 

The peculiar importance of a study of theology today. — 
The present generation is passing through one of the most 
remarkable developments of religious thinking ever known 
in human history. There is very general perplexity and 
uncertainty concerning many phases of Christian doctrine. 
Every pastor will have in his congregation, and more especially 
in his community, persons who are high-minded and loyal to 
good ideals but who find little meaning or inspiration in the 
inherited formulations of doctrine. In order to influence such 
men, as well as to inspire those who still love the familiar 
terms and phrases, one ought to know just what doctrines 
have meant in human history, and just how the typical 
experiences of Christian men today may find adequate intel- 
lectual formulation. It is precisely here that the teaching of 
theology in a modern divinity school differs most markedly 
from that of a generation ago. Then it was taken for granted 
that the inherited system of doctrine was entirely adequate 

485 



486 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION . 

to express iiie real convictions of Christian men. Today 
the theologian is facing a world of ideas and aspirations 
whici owe their origin to scientific, social, and industrial 
activities which have altered the conditions of human Hving. 
He must therefore consider the problems of religious belief in 
relation to all these comparatively new but intensely real 
factors of modern Hfe, and so formulate Christian convictions 
that they may enable men to carry their religion into all 
realms of Hfe. Theology may be defined as the attempt to 
think over our religious inheritance in the light of present 
problems, so as to formulate for today and to transmit to the 
coming generation an expression of faith vitally related to 
our actual life. There is no short and easy way of gaining a 
theology today. We must creatively think through a host of 
problems which found no place in the theological treatises of 
former days, just because the conditions of life formerly were 
different from the exigencies of thought and of action which 
we must daily confront. It is the purpose of the following 
discussion to call attention to the principal problems which 
a theological student today must face, and to indicate the way 
in which beliefs are to be worked out. 

I. THE METHOD OF THEOLOGICAL INQUIRY 

The fundamental issue in modem theology. — ^We have 
inherited the conception of Christianity as a perfect revela- 
tion of truth which abides substantially unchanged from age 
to age. The theologian, from this point of view, is not search- 
ing for truth, as are men who deal with mere human science. 
His truth is ''given" to him by revelation, and has only to 
be effectively expounded and interpreted. According to this 
conception, the most that a modern theologian might expect to 
accomplish in the way of advance would be to point out the 
inadequacy of former interpretations. But he, like all his 
predecessors, would be expected to find the content of Chris- 
tian truth already given in the Bible. . 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 487 

But what does the history of religious thinking reveal? 
Has the content of Christianity actually remained constant ? 
Have not the exigencies of changing human experience com- 
pelled a changing theology? For example, do we take 
seriously today the biblical doctrine of demons? On the 
other hand, are we not vitally interested in some doctrines 
about which bibHcal writers knew nothing, as, for example, 
the conception of evolution? The fact that Christian the- 
ology has actually been developing and changing throughout 
its history comes into conflict with the theory of a divinely 
authorized, unchangeable content of doctrine. 

Orthodoxy and Modernism. — The above-mentioned ques- 
tion is crucial in all divisions of Christianity. In Roman 
Catholicism the advocates of unyielding authority are in 
serious controversy with the ''Modernists" who recognize the 
fact and the significance of historical evolution. Nowhere is 
this issue more clearly stated than in the Encyclical Letter of 
Pope Pius X against Modernism and in the Programme of 
Modernism put forth in reply. The papal letter judges every- 
thing on the basis of conformity to the authoritatively pre- 
scribed system. The Modernists declare that historical 
facts must be frankly recognized, even if it be necessary to 
modify the system. Precisely the same division of opinion 
runs through'Protestantism. '' Orthodoxy " and '' Kberalism" 
can scarcely understand each other, for each starts from 
premises which the other would deny. Our traditional 
denominational divisions prevent Protestants from realizing 
the importance of this issue as it is realized in Catholicism; 
but it is more or less keenly felt by every thoughtful man. 
To study the task of theology in the light of this fundamental 
cleavage is imperative if the student is to understand the 
problems of theological thinking today. 

Literature. — The Programme of Modernism and the Encyclical of 
Pius X (New York: Putnam, 1908) is perhaps the most illuminating 
theological debate of our day. McGiffert, Protestant Thought before 



488 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Kant (New York: Scribner, 191 1) and The Rise of Modern Religious 
Ideas (New York: Macmillan, 19 15), should be read for a clear historical 
account of the development of the theological situation which we con- 
front. Other suggestive treatments are Troeltsch, " Protest antisches 
Christentum und Kirche in der Neuzeit," in Kultur der Gegenwart, 
Teil I, Abt. IV, pp. 253-458 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1906), and Protestantism 
and Progress (New York: Putnam, 19 12); G, B, Smith, Social Idealism 
and the Changing Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1913); Mathews, 
The Church and the Changing Order (New York: Macmillan, 1907); 
Youtz, The Enlarging Conception of God (New York: Macmillan, 19 14). 

The change from the method of appeal to authority to 
the method of free inquiry. — In attempting to formulate 
our beliefs today, we are subject to pressure from the two 
ideals described above. On the one hand is the inherited 
demand that the system of doctrine which has been authori- 
tatively promulgated shall be transmitted unimpaired. 
Every Christian is familiar with the injunction to hold fast 
the '' faith once delivered." On the other hand, many thinkers 
of our time feel that this inherited system does not do justice 
to the demands of living faith. There is a rapidly increasing 
number of loyal Christians who insist that religious beliefs 
must be large enough to include the truth of modern discovery 
as well as the truth of ancient Scripture. What, now, is 
the task of the theologian? Is he primarily the custodian 
of an authorized system? If so, his sole task will be to 
expound the content of the revekrtion which has been com- 
mitted to fiim. Or is the modern theologian, like the modern 
physician or the modern educator, to ask how the interests 
of living men may best be cared for ? If so, he must be ready 
to modify or to discard traditional doctrines whenever investi- 
gation sheds new light on religious problems. Theology in 
such a case would alter the content of religious hypotheses as 
readily as any science alters the content of its hypotheses in 
response to more exact knowledge. 

Protestant theology is beginning to abandon the method of 
appeal to authority; but it has not yet, as a rule, come to face 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 489 

squarely the tests of free investigation, as have other branches 
of human knowledge. The student will find that most theo- 
logical writings today are characterized by considerable 
vagueness and by many inconsistencies. While the inade- 
quacy of the mere appeal to authority is generally recognized 
by modern theologians, nevertheless their habits of thinking 
have generally been formed under the sway of the authority 
•ideal, and they are constantly seeking to find some acceptable 
way of continuing to employ the familiar method. Thus 
while the older supports are admittedly weakening, men have 
not yet learned to rely confidently on the somewhat unfamiliar 
supports of critical examination. There is a general desire 
to find some basis which ''criticism" cannot touch. The 
student should realize that we are living through a transition 
period in which theologians are not very sure of themselves. 

A primary question of moral loyalty. — The method of 
appeal to authority involves the enlistment of a high moral 
loyalty. If the theologian has been intrusted with a divinely 
authorized message, loyalty bids him deliver it in its integ- 
rity. Any departure from the authorized truth would be 
dishonorable. It would be like treachery to the government 
which one has sworn to uphold. Heresy from this point of 
view is wilful sin. 

If, now, a theologian does actually depart from the author- 
ized content of doctrine, he has to meet the traditional feeling 
that he is a traitor to the cause. So strong is this feeling that 
a religious man today is almost inevitably compelled to 
adopt an apologetic method of setting forth new doctrines. 
He is led to use the familiar terms and phrases, so far as pos- 
sible, and to make what he holds to be true seem as much like 
orthodox doctrine as possible. The traditional conception of 
moral loyalty brings the strong temptation to make the duty 
of conformity more important than the duty of exact truth- 
telling. New meanings are thus smuggled in under familiar 
labels, with a resulting lack of clearness in thinking. 



490 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

The student should recognize the dangers involved in 
serving two masters in his attempts at theologizing. He 
should see that there are really two very different questions 
which may be asked when one confronts the task of construct- 
ing a doctrinal statement. One question is, ^'What is the 
content of authorized belief?" The other is, ''What, in the 
light of careful, critical study, is the truth?" The student 
should make clear to himself which question is guiding him. 
Much confusion arises in modern theology from the fact that 
these questions are not clearly distinguished. Fidelity to the 
implications of the first question would mean that the student 
must eliminate all personal preferences and seek to make his 
thinking conform to that of Scripture. Fidelity to the view- 
point of the second question would mean that critical inquiry 
must determine what one shall say. 

Now, critical methods do enter fundamentally into any 
theology. But the conclusions dictated by criticism are fre- 
quently so shaped and modified as to appear to be results 
of mere interpretation of Scripture. The danger in such 
attempts is that one may eventually have neither good 
exegesis nor good criticism. Modern books on theology fre- 
quently indulge in clever rhetorical statements which serve, 
indeed, to allay the fears of conservative Christians, but 
which also fail to meet the demands of earnest and exact think- 
ing. Such adjustments of statement are likely to involve 
a failure to be thoroughly loyal either to Scripture or to the 
demands of criticism. And when stern loyalty is relaxed, 
the door to clever timeserving is wide open. 

The religious value of critical honesty. — Probably there 
is no greater need today than the acquirement of an attitude 
which does not involve distrust of the processes of critical 
examination. Every intelHgent man knows that critical 
scholarship prevails in all important modern theological 
schools. Moreover, while occasionally an individual is 
unable to unite positive religious conviction with critical 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 491 

methods, there is no evidence that those who employ critical 
scholarship are as a rule any more lacking in religious devotion 
and power than are those who fear critical methods. The 
attempt to retain the appeal to authority and at the same time 
to cultivate an acquaintance with critical methods leads to a 
habit of ''harmonization" which withholds one from the kind 
of accuracy essential to self-respect and to real influence with 
men. It is of fundamental importance that the student of 
theology should learn to feel the religious value of honestly 
facing the facts. The man who has taken this attitude of 
absolute loyalty to whatever proves itself to be true possesses 
a spiritual strength which can never be attained by one who is 
in constant dread lest ''criticism" make inroads into his 
faith. It is only as one comes to feel that loyalty to the 
truth is more religious than mere conformity to a prescribed 
statement that the full value of critical methods will appear. 
Because of timidity and attempts at compromise the "new 
theology" has not yet had an opportunity to disclose its 
entire power. So long as departures from traditional positions 
must be made apologetically there is the tacit admission 
that strict conformity is morally better. If this be admitted, 
any departure from the authorized doctrine exists on suff ranee. 
The theologian wiUing to make " concessions " to modern ideas 
seems made of less heroic stuff than one who defies innova- 
tions. Only a devotion to the interests of modern life which 
shall express something of the religious passion which animated 
Jesus in his rebuke to Pharisaic conformity can adequately 
strengthen one who faces the future rather than the past. 
Without this conviction of moral compulsion a "new" 
theology will be nothing more than a pleasing essay. 

The value of historical study for the student of theology. — 
One whose task it is to uphold a prescribed doctrine will 
inevitably employ the method of debate. One's own position 
is put in the most favorable light possible, while opposing 
views are discredited by all possible means. The systematic 



492 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

theologies which employ the method of appeal to authority 
make large use of debate. The controversial spirit prevails. 
Denominational distinctions are emphasized. 

The historical method of studying theology means the 
abandonment of the debater's attitude. For example, 
while the debater will seek out all possible considerations 
which enable him to afhrm or to deny the Mosaic authorship 
of the Pentateuch, the historical student must refuse to allow 
his study to be determined by a preconceived theory. He 
must attempt to take account of all the facts, and must let 
his conclusions be dictated by these facts. Modern historical 
study presupposes the painstaking examination of all the 
evidence rather than the determined defense of a theory 
declared authoritatively to be the ''truth." While the 
adherent of the method of appeal to authority is primarily 
concerned with content of doctrine, the historical scholar is 
primarily concerned with accuracy of investigation. Thus 
while abandonment of a doctrine seems to the believer in 
authority like radical disloyalty, it is an incidental matter 
to the historical scholar. The latter is concerned that the 
investigation shall be accurate, whatever may be the result in 
content of doctrine. He inevitably feels a confidence in a 
critically established doctrine which he could not feel in any 
theory which has not been subjected to criticism. Conclu- 
sions reached by historical inquiry may be revised or even 
abandoned without involving distress of spirit, or without 
involving any sense of moral disloyalty to the old. One 
thus obtains a spiritual anchorage. Changes in rehgious 
convictions become possible without the period of moral 
disintegration engendered by the attempt to compromise 
with the dogmatic attitude. As a steadying power for stu- 
dents of theology in this transitional age the value of train- 
ing in the methods of historical interpretation can scarcely 
be overestimated. Certainly no student ought to attempt 
to deal with the problems of systematic theology today with- 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 493 

out first having learned the full significance of the historical 
study of the Bible and of Christian history. 

The outcome of the historical study of Christianity. — The 
historical study of Christianity makes it clear that religion is 
always in the making. Every generation inherits from the 
preceding age certain doctrines and ideals which were 
wrought out in the struggles and the triumphs of faith in the 
past. But each new generation has to ask its own questions. 
New conditions arise, making necessary adjustments of faith. 
Out of efforts at adjustment changes in doctrine come about. 
Historical study attempts to explain the significance of 
doctrine-making in terms of the actual questions which were 
being asked and for which satisfactory answers were being 
sought. The historical student is never satisfied with mere 
statistics. He wants to know not simply what Isaiah or 
Jeremiah said; he wants also to know why they said what 
they did. If this latter question can be answered, it serves 
to relate the utterances of a man vitally to the religious 
problems which he must face. It reveals the fact that 
theology arises just because men ask searching questions and 
demand profound answers to those questions. 

The nature of ^ vital theology today. — This view of doc- 
trine resulting from historical appreciation should be con- 
sistently carried into the realm of doctrinal formulation 
today. If the analysis of the experience of men in bibHcal 
times is the key to the understanding of the making of 
biblical doctrine, then the way to formulate doctrine for 
our own day is to analyze the religious longings and experi- 
ences of the present. We, like every generation, have in- 
herited doctrines and ideals. But we have our own peculiar 
problems to face, and we must use our inheritance, and, 
where necessary, modify it, so as to meet these problems. In 
so far as the circumstances of our life differ from those of 
former generations our beliefs must differ. Sometimes a theo- 
logian faces conditions essentially identical with those which 



494 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

prevailed when the inherited doctrine was formulated. In such 
a case no striking changes take place. Sometimes, as occurred 
when Israel had to meet the fact of national dissolution, or as 
is the case when we today have to learn to preserve our ideals 
in the midst of the bewildering novelties introduced by modern 
learning and invention, the changes in doctrine will be very 
great. If the student can come to measure the validity of his 
theologizing, not by its conformity to standards of the past, 
but by its capacity to meet the questions of the present, he 
will be in a position to do fruitful work. The ability to see 
that this prophetic spirit, which makes the needs of the 
present and of the future supreme, is the impelling force lead- 
ing to the construction of strong religious behefs is one of 
the chief gains from the historical study of the Bible. To 
incorporate this spirit into theological method today is far 
more important — and more true to the deepest spiritual 
meaning of the Bible itself — than authoritatively to repro- 
duce bibhcal doctrines for our acceptance. 

Literature. — The point of view here advocated is set forth with more 
detail by G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the Changing Theology (New 
York: Macmillan, 19 13). See also by the same author "The Task and 
the Method of Systematic Theology," American Journal of Theology, XIV 
(April, 1 9 10), 215-33, ^nd Significant Movements in Modern Theology, a 
professional reading-course published by the American Institute of 
Sacred Literature, Chicago, 1915; Troeltsch, "The Dogmatics of the 
Religions geschichtliche Schule," American Journal of Theology, XVII, 
(January, 19 13), 1-2 1. Very suggestive is Youtz, The Enlarging Con- 
ception of God (New York: Macmillan, 19 14). 

II. HOW SHALL THE CONTENT OF CHRISTIANITY BE 
DETERMINED ? 

The definition of Christianity given by the authority type 
of theology. — It is only in modern times that the problem of 
defining Christianity has become a really scientific problem. 
It has been very generally assumed by theologians that Jesus 
definitely conceived and committed to the apostles an author- 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 495 

ized system of doctrine and an authoritative church with 
exactly prescribed officials and practices. By ascertaining 
this original thought of Jesus as expounded by him and by the 
apostles one would know precisely the content of true Chris- 
tianity. Any types of Christian thinking which diverged from 
the alleged authoritative type could be disposed of as ''here- 
sies." 

Unfortunately for the decisiveness of this method, heretics 
appealed in support of their claims to the same Scriptures, 
using the same methods of interpretation. The ''true" 
doctrine had, in the last analysis, to be upheld by ecclesiastical 
coercion. However, the inexact methods of exegesis in vogue 
for centuries permitted men to feel that the content of the 
Christianity which they knew and loved had been ascertained 
by an appeal to the original revelation in Scripture, culmi- 
nating in Jesus. 

The student should be familiar with this method of 
defining Christianity, for the vast majority of Christians today 
suppose that it is the only defensible way in which to find out 
what we are to believe. Moreover, if one adopts a different 
method of ascertaining the content of doctrine, one will still 
constantly be compelled to meet men who chng to this method 
of appeal to authority, and who will wish to debate on the 
basis of the method. It is of the utmost importance to see 
that while in theory an appeal to the teachings of Jesus or of 
Scripture ought to yield a single ''true" system of doctrine, 
as a matter of fact such an appeal has not prevented variety 
and change in beliefs. Far from bringing unity of conviction, 
it has only served to divide Christendom into mutually sus- 
picious and hostile groups, each claiming exclusive vahdity 
for its system of doctrine. If one allows himself to be drawn 
into debate on the basis of the mere appeal to authority, one 
will be fatally bhnded to the actual history of Christianity, 
and will consequently be incompetent to pass accurate judg- 
ment on its real nature. 



496 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

The Catholic method of determming the content of 
Christianity. — The aim of Catholicism is so completely to 
establish authoritative control as to prevent that uncertainty 
and division of opinion which actually exist in Christendom. 
According to Catholic theory, Christ committed to the church 
the power to interpret correctly the content of Christianity. 
Statements of Scripture must mean what the church says 
they mean. Private judgment must bow before the mandates 
of the church. In this way all differences of opinion may be 
authoritatively decided. The student should familiarize 
himself with the magnificent completeness of this control of 
theological thinking, and should ask himself whether Protes- 
tantism, with its insistence on the private right of the indi- 
vidual to« interpret Scripture, can hope to be a formidable 
rival so long as the appeal to authority is made supreme. 

Literature. — ^The best way in which to know the Catholic position 
is to read the official statements in the Canons and £)ecrees of the 
Council of Trent and in the Dogmatic Decrees of the Vatican Council 
(both found in the original and in translation in Schaff, Creeds of Chris- 
tendom, Vol. II, New York: Harper, 1878). Denzinger, Enchiridion 
Symholorum et Definitiorum, etc., is a standard presentation for those 
who read Latin. Wilhelm and Scannell, A Manual of Catholic Theology, 
an abridged translation of Scheeben's Handbuch der katholischen Dog- 
matik (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1898), is an excellent treatise in 
English. Mohler, Symholik, 2d ed. (Leipzig: Deichert, 1896; English 
translation. Symbolism [New York: Scribner, 1894]), gives a comparative 
study of Catholic and Protestant beliefs from the point of view of 
Catholicism. The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton) 
is a mine of information concerning Catholic opinions and positions. 

Protestant orthodoxy. — The student should realize that 
the essential features of Protestant orthodoxy are due to the 
inevitable apologetic debate with Catholicism during the 
early years of the growth of the new movement. Theo- 
logically, Protestantism shared the main presuppositions of 
the Catholicism which it opposed. It asserted that it was 
restoring in primitive purity the Christianity which Catholi- 
cism had corrupted. By making the Bible the sole authority, 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 497 

Protestant theologians felt that they could authoritatively 
correct the errors of the Roman church. This appeal to the 
Bible is still supposed by most Protestant laymen to be the 
true way in which to discover the content of Christian belief. 

It is thus a source of serious perplexity to Christians 
generally if it is suggested that we cannot use the Bible in 
this formal way. The student who is familiar with biblical 
criticism and who has worked out a new method of determining 
the content of his behef is likely to forget the deep religious 
loyalty which clings to the traditional attitude toward the 
Bible. We must not make the mistake of depreciating the 
sincerity and the moral earnestness which mark the devotion 
of a deeply religious orthodox soul. Such a person puts wil- 
hngness to obey the truth higher than mere curiosity. He 
can make positive use of the accumulated momentum of 
centuries of consecrated Christian thinking. To understand 
and appreciate the inner spiritual power of orthodoxy is indis- 
pensable if one is to be aJble to stand in helpful relations to men 
during a transition stage of thinking. 

Nevertheless, the sudden disappearance of this type of 
theology from our foremost American divinity schools is a 
striking fact. Up to the last decade of the nineteenth century 
it was almost universally prevalent. Today the younger 
theologians nearly everywhere are adopting new conceptions of 
theology. When we recall how recently our divinity schools 
have made the change from the method of appeal to authority 
to the method of scientific investigation, it is not to be expected 
that laymen generally should be aware that there is any legiti- 
mate method of discovering Christian doctrines other than 
that which has prevailed in Protestant orthodoxy. It is 
especially important during the period of transition that 
ministers should be familiar with the older as well as with the 
newer theology, in order to interpret the meaning of religion 
to perplexed souls. Particularly should one be able to show 
that the change in method is not due to hostility to religion. 



498 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

but rather to the desire to do more efficiently and accurately 
that which orthodoxy can no longer do in the presence of 
modern conditions of thought and life. 

Literature. — Standard treatises representing the system of Protestant 
orthodoxy are Hodge, Systematic Theology (New York: Scribner, 1872 
and 1887); Shedd, Dogmatic Theology (New York: Scribner, 1888); 
Strong, Systematic Theology (New York: Armstrong, 1898; enlarged ed. 
in 3 vols., Philadelphia: Griffith & Rowland Press, 1907). The 
scholarly volume. Biblical and Theological Studies (New York: Scribner, 
19 1 2), published by members of the faculty of Princeton Theological 
Seminary on the occasion of its hundredth anniversary, is especially 
valuable, because in it orthodoxy is expounded and defended against 
modern liberalism. F. H. Foster, A Genetic History of New England 
Theology (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1907), gives a 
detailed account of the characteristic American type of orthodoxy. 
McGiffert, Protestant Thought before Kant (New York: Scribner, 191 1), 
furnishes an exceptionally keen analysis of the characteristics of ortho- 
doxy. 

'^ Liberal" orthodoxy. — If the method of appeal to authority 
is strictly carried out, the theologian is not at hberty to 
consult his own moral or spiritual inclinations. Doctrines 
are authoritatively prescribed. But in practice it has never 
been possible to ignore the human element. In one way or 
another the ideals of a theologian always find a place in his 
theology. The method of authority, however, insists that 
the validity of a doctrine is to be found in its biblical character 
rather than in its human appeal. 

If a theologian consciously attempts to raise human needs 
and ideals to a normative place in the construction of doctrine, 
he becomes 'liberal." In proportion as he more definitely 
admits the claims of experience to a larger place he becomes 
more ' ' liberal. ' ' Actually the ' ' liberal ' ' theologian is attempt- 
ing nothing new. Any vital theology must be convincing to 
men, and hence must meet the demands of experimental 
verification. But the ''hberal" consciously recognizes that 
experience has a normative place in theologizing, whereas 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 499 

the more orthodox man attempts to subject experience to the 
authority of the Bible or of sacred tradition. 

Liberal orthodoxy attempts to preserve both authoritative 
sanction and experimental testing. This involves many 
difficulties and compromises. Sometimes the statements of 
Scripture are so modernized as to meet the demands of 
present-day thinking; sometimes experience is subjected 
to an interpretation which gives it an essentially biblical 
aspect. The result is more or less vagueness and uncertainty 
in exposition. But such vagueness is inevitable in the stage 
of transition from one method to the other. If one remembers 
this fact, one will find in the mediating treatises of our day a 
gratifying amount of insight into the real religioUs problems of 
our life and many suggestive hints as to constructive doctrines. 

The appeal to Christian experience. — The motive under- 
lying modern attempts at theological reconstruction is the 
desire to allow the living experience of Christians today to find 
convincing expression. Over a century ago Schleiermacher 
introduced a new epoch in the history of religious thinking 
by defining theology as the interpretation of the experience 
of Christian men. Since his day this conception of the task 
has become increasingly dominant. 

But it is easier to formulate the general conception than to 
work it out in detail. Just what is a Christian ^' experience " ? 
How is it derived ? What are the philosophical factors which 
enter into it ? In recent years we have become aware of the 
social character of any experience. How much of the content 
of ^' Christian " doctrine is due to the social Zeitgeist? Can we 
trust ''experience" in and of itself to continue to be 'Chris- 
tian"? Such are some of the questions which arise as one 
comes to look more carefully at the implications of the appeal 
to experience. 

The theological expositions which are most in favor at pres- 
ent are concerned to smooth the way for a quiet modification 
of orthodox views rather than to engage in a thorough-going 



500 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

analysis of the problems involved. They are likely to pre- 
serve the form of an appeal to biblical authority; but the 
content of doctrine is found in those aspects of biblical ideals 
which are convincing to modern men. Thus the Bible is used 
as a suggestive aid to the discussion of modern questions rather 
than as an external authority. The way is thus being pre- 
pared for a theological method which shall start from an 
analysis of actual religious life rather than from prescribed 
doctrines found in the Bible. But ''liberal orthodoxy" does 
not as a rule see its way clear to adopt a consistently empirical 
method. 

Literature. — Schleiermacher's Discourses on Religion (translation 
by Oman [London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1893]) should be read by every 
one who desires to master the problems of modern theology. His Der 
christliche Glaube has been admirably interpreted in paraphrase by 
Cross, The Theology of Schleiermacher (Chicago: The University of 
Chicago Press, 191 1). 

Typical works attempting to mediate as smoothly as possible the 
transition from the method of authority to that of interpreting Christian 
experience are Stearns, Present Day Theology (New York: Scribner, 
1893); Clarke, Outlines of Christian Theology (New York: Scrib- 
ner, 1898); Brown, Christian Theology in Outline (New York: Scrib- 
ner, 1906) and Modern Theology and the Preaching of the Gospel (New 
York: Scribner, 1914). 

An especially stimulating attempt to analyze experience and to 
base an evangelical theology upon it is well represented by Sabatier, 
Esquisse d'une philosophie de la religion (Pans: Fischbacher, 1897; 
English translation, Outlines of a Philosophy of Religion [New York: 
Potts, 1902]). Suggestive studies are found in King, Reconstruction in 
Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1901), and Theology and the Social 
Consciousness (New York: Macmillan, 1902). 

The Ritschlian theology. — The most important movement 
in Christian thought during the latter part of the nineteenth 
century was the development of the Ritschlian theology. It 
is impossible to read modern theological discussions intelli- 
gently without a knowledge of Ritschlianism. The essential 
characteristic of this type of theology is the appeal through 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 501 

experience to the spiritual authority of that which produces 
Christian experience. Just what is it that makes a man a 
Christian? Upon what does his experience depend for its 
existence? If we can answer this question correctly, we 
shall be able to relate our convictions, not simply to the emo- 
tions and thoughts which dominate us, but to the objective 
source of these emotions and thoughts. It is here rather than 
in mere subjective states of mind that we are to find the ulti- 
mate basis for our theology. 

This conception of the task of theology has been of im- 
mense fruitfulness. It has compelled theologians to pass 
beyond the comparatively simple task of setting forth per- 
suasively whatever convictions chance lo characterize modern 
Christianity. It is necessary to inquire into the genesis of 
beliefs and thus to establish them on a scientific basis. A 
Christian theology, according to the Ritschhans, should limit 
itself to those convictions which actually grow out of the 
vital relation of the believer to the historical Jesus. It is thus 
a description of actual experience, but at the same time it 
finds the norm for this experience in the revelation of God 
in Jesus. 

Every student should make a careful study of some 
Ritschlian treatise on theology, for he will here encounter 
an exactness of critical analysis and a clearness of aim which 
are largely lacking in the less critical popular expositions of 
current ''liberal" theology. To read and digest such a book 
as Herrmann's The Christianas Communion with God will 
leave a lasting impression of the dignity and the religious 
possibiHties of keenly critical theological discussion. The 
Ritschlian school has rendered great service in revealing 
so clearly the fact that scientific acuteness may go hand in 
hand with religious zeal. It is true that the particular 
theological solution furnished by this school is today being 
generally abandoned by the younger generation of theo- 
logians; but the method of a radically critical examination 



502 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

of the sources and the genesis of religious experience has 
gained widespread approval. The religious power of a 
critical theology has been demonstrated, and the way has 
been opened for a more confident use of strictly scientific 
method in dealing with problems of belief. 

Literature. — ^The literature belonging to the Ritschlian movement 
is enormous. The student should consult the articles on Ritschl and 
the Ritschlian movement in such encyclopedias as the Herzog Realency- 
clopadie or Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart for bibliographies. 

The most important theological treatises are Ritschl, Die christliche 
Lehre von der Rechtfertigung und Versohnung, 3d ed. (Bonn: Marcus, 
1889; English translation of 2 vols, by Black and by Mackintosh and 
Macaulay, The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation 
[Edinburgh: Edmonston, 1872; Clark, 1900]); Herrindiim, Der Verkehr 
des Christen mit Gott (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1889, 4th ed., 1906; English 
translation by Stanyon, The Christianas Communion\vith God [London: 
Williams & Norgate, 1895]; English translation from the 4th German ed. 
by Stewart [London: Williams & Norgate, 1906]); Kaftan, Dogmatik 
(Freiburg: Mohr, 1897, 5th ed., 1909); Harnack, Das Wesen des 
Christentums (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1900; English translation by Saunders, 
What Is Christianity? [New York: Putnam, 1901]); Haering, Der 
christliche Glaube, 2d ed. (Calw: Vereinsbuchhandlung, 191 2; English 
translation by Dickie and Ferries, The Christian Faith [London: Hodder 
& Stoughton, 19 13]); Wendt, System der christlichen Lehre (Gottingen: 
Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1906 and 1907); Lobstein, Essai d'une 
introduction a la dogmatique protestante (Paris: Fischbacher, 1896; 
English translation by A. M. Smith, Introduction to Protestant Dog- 
matics [Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1902]). 

Expositions of Ritschlianism by others are far less valuable to the 
student than the writings of the Ritschlian theologians. Good inter- 
pretations in English are Garvie, The Ritschlian Theology, (Edinburgh: 
Clark, 1899); Edgehill, Faith and Fact (London: Macmillan, 1910); 
Mozley, Ritschlianism (London: Nisbet, 1909); Swing, The Theology of 
Albrecht Ritschl (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1901). 

The modem-positive school of theology.— The influence 
of the Ritschlian appeal to experience has been so wide- 
spread that conservative theologians are generally coming 
to make more confident use of this appeal. The so-called 
modern-positive school in Germany frankly abandons the 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 503 

older Conception of deducing the content of Christianity 
from an objective source as such. It proposes to allow 
rehgious experience freely to test and interpret the content of 
revelation. But the representatives of this school believe 
that experience justifies us in retaining much more of the 
scriptural content of doctrine than is permitted by the 
Ritschhan theology. It is not the inner hfe of Jesus alone, but 
the total redemptive history recorded in the Bible and cul- 
minating in Christ, which constitutes the basis of faith. This 
school thus approximates more closely to orthodoxy in the 
content of theology, but in its method of testing doctrine 
frankly adopts the empirical ideal. It is thus primarily inter- 
ested in the Christianity of living experience rather than in 
the Christianity of a formally prescribed system. 

The student should note carefully the fact that here is an 
essentially conservative type of religious thinking which uses 
modern methods of inquiry. While the theologians of this 
school attempt to estabhsh the finahty of the ''essentials" of 
the biblical doctrines, there is nothing in the method employed 
to prevent the modification of any religious idea in response 
to the demands of living faith. The influence of this type of 
theology is sure to be very great in popular thinking during 
the next few years. It commends itself to conservative 
minds just because it retains more of the content of ortho- 
doxy than does Ritschhanism. At the same time it makes 
men familiar with the open-minded processes of free inquiry, 
and thus leads to the adoption of an undogmatic attitude 
in theology. When once confidence in the newer method is 
estabhshed, the unfruitful polemic debates which are engen- 
dered by the mere appeal to authority will become a thing of 
the past. Conservative and liberal can then work together 
in friendly criticism for the better understanding of our real 
theological problems. 

Literature. — The article by Schian, entitled "Modern-positiv" in 
the encyclopedia Religion in Geschichie und Gegenwart, IV, 418^ gives an 



504 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

excellent account of the rise and activities of the party in Germany. A 
good bibliography is furnished here. 

The most important works for a student to know are Seeberg, 
Die Grundwahrheiten der christlichen Religion (Leipzig: Boehme, 1902, 
5th ed., 1910; English translation by Thomson and Wallentin, The Fun- 
damental Truths of the Christian Religion [New York: Putnam, 1908]); 
Seeberg, Modern-positive Vortrdge (Leipzig: Boehme, 1906) and Zur 
systematischen Theologie (Leipzig: Boehme, 1905 and 1909); Beth, 
Die Moderne und die Prinzipien der Theologie (Berlin: Trowitzsch, 
1907). 

The most vigorous English-speaking advocate of this theological 
position is Principal P. T. Forsyth, whose Yale lectures, Positive Preach- 
ing and the Modern Mind (New York: Armstrong, 1909), were evidently 
inspired by the German controversy. Mathews, The Gospel and the 
Modern Man (New York: Macmillan, 1910), reflects the general spirit 
of this type of theology, though he employs a more historical method. 
See also his article "A Positive Method for an Evangelical Theology," 
American Journal of Theology, XIII (January, 1909), 1-46. 

Theology and idealistic philosophy. — ^Another way of at- 
tempting to modernize theology is to transform the inherited 
doctrines into statements which gain their meaning from 
modern philosophy. It is well known that Greek philosophy 
supplied the basis for the doctrines of the ancient church. 
Should we not render to modern religion a similar service by 
employing modern philosophy ? 

During the early part of the nineteenth century this was a 
favorite undertaking, and some of the most impressive systems 
of theology were wrought out by this method. This ^'medi- 
ating" theology (Vermittlungstheologie) translated inherited 
doctrines into modern philosophical form with as httle dis- 
turbance to faith as possible. Old terms were used, thus 
retaining the religious emotions associated with orthodoxy; 
while modern meanings were given to these terms, thus enlist- 
ing the intellectual interest of modern thinkers. 

Great as are the merits of this attempt, it is exposed to two 
serious objections. In the first place, it operates with philo- 
sophical concepts which are out of the reach of ordinary men. 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 505 

It is thus in danger of being too abstruse to have convincing 
power among those who are not philosophically inclined. In 
the second place, those who are critically able to appreciate 
the use of philosophy are likely to discern striking differences 
between the content of doctrine set forth in the traditional 
dogmas and that advocated by the newer philosophy. The 
older theology depicted God as the transcendent Being who 
governs the world by decrees, and who acts through miracles 
for the important achievements of history. The newer 
philosophy conceives God as the immanent source of cosmic 
evolution, dynamically present in all reality. To attempt 
to intermingle these two points of view inevitably leads to 
confusion. The older religious attitude finds more direct 
and satisfying expression in a frankly orthodox system, 
while the newer attitude soon becomes impatient of the 
attempt to accommodate its meanings to a vocabulary which 
comes from an alien source. Thus during the latter part of 
the nineteenth century this type of theology steadily waned 
in importance. It is still a vigorous and optimistic movement, 
however. 

Literature. — Classic representatives of this idealistic theology are 
Dorner, System der Glauhenslehre (Berlin: Hertz, 1878; English trans- 
lation by Cave and Banks, A System of Christian Doctrine [Edinburgh: 
Clark, 1880]); Biedermann, Christliche Dogmatik (Berlin: Reimer, 
1884); Pfleiderer, Grundriss der christlichen Glauhens- und Sittenlehre 
(Berlin: Reimer, 1893). 

Among writings in English representing this theological attitude 
the following are important works: John Caird, The Fundamental Ideas 
of Christianity (Glasgow: MacLehose, 1904); Watson, Christianity 
and Idealism (New York: Macmillan, 1897) and The Philosophical 
Basis of Religion (Glasgow: MacLehose, 1907) ; Royce, The Problem of 
Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1913). 

More popular expositions of Christian ideals from this point of view 
are found in Hyde, Social Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1895); 
Gordon, The Ultimate Conceptions of Faith (Boston: Houghton Mifflin 
Co., 1904); Jones, Social Law in the Spiritual World (Philadelphia: 
Winston, 1904). 



5o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

An attempt to show how the new philosophy may take the place of 
the Greek philosophy in modern theology is found in a suggestive study 
by Ten Broeke, A Constructive Basis for Theology (New York: Mac- 
millan, 19 14). 

The definition of Christianity from the historical point of 
view. — The historical study of religion makes it clear tl:iat 
the beliefs of any generation are determined partly by the 
ideals and maxims inherited from the preceding generation 
and partly by the necessity for thinking through the specific 
problems which are occasioned by the actual exigencies of 
life. For example, we recognize that the beliefs of any given 
period in the history of Israel were due partly to the social 
inheritance furnished by tradition and partly to the original 
thinking of the living generation. In relating the theology 
of the Old Testament to the '^ experience" of the Israelites we 
also recognize that that ''experience" was no vaguely subjec- 
tive thing. It was definitely determined by historical circum- 
stances. So, too, New Testament scholarship is seeking to 
show how the content of the Christianity of the first century 
was due to the specific historical conditions of religious think- 
ing and experience in that age. Now, what is true of the behefs 
of the Israelites and of the early Christians is equally true of 
those of all generations. Every age has its own ''Chris- 
tianity," the specific traits of which are due to the working 
over of inherited beliefs under the pressure of new problems. 
Just as we recognize Jewish Christianity and gentile Chris- 
tianity in the New Testament, so we recognize Nicene Chris- 
tianity, Augustinian Christianity, Lutheran Christianity, 
Pietistic Christianity, Modernist Christianity, and many 
other typical forms. There is no one fixed authoritative type, 
Christianity is always in the making. Each generation 
inherits certain beliefs; but these beliefs are brought into 
relation with new conditions, and are subjected to criticism 
and reconstruction. If the historical conditions of life are 
not essentially different from those which prevailed when the 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 507 

inherited doctrines were formulated, little or no modifica- 
tion is needed. If, as is the case with us today, the living 
generation is facing a host of new problems, the changes 
in theology will be much more radical. '^Experience" is 
indeed the source of doctrines; but experience changes with 
the changing conditions of life. 

The value of this historical understanding of the nature 
of Christianity is very great. It at once relieves the student 
of the formaUty of trying to express his convictions in any 
stereotyped way. Moreover, it provides a definite ''objec- 
tive" basis for theologizing. The great defect of many "lib- 
eral" theologies is their failure to give an objective basis for 
the "experience" to which they appeal. The historical 
point of view corrects this defect, and thus takes away the 
main adverse criticism of liberalism. Orthodoxy is strong 
because of its appreciation of the necessity for an objective 
control of experience; but it is weak because of its inabihty to 
appreciate the positive significance of modern life. Liberal- 
ism is strong by virtue of its emphasis on the right of living 
faith to determine its own content; but it is often weak in 
failing to show the value of objective control. The historical 
method of interpreting Christianity has the strength of both 
these positions without their weaknesses. If we conceive 
Christianity to be the living movement in which every 
generation is reworking its inherited beliefs into forms 
more potent to inspire and direct living men, the task of 
the theologian becomes clear. He is to appreciate the 
inherited beliefs in relation to the conditions which pro- 
duced them, and thus to feel the spiritual power of the Chris- 
tianity which found expression in these beliefs. He is then 
to analyze the problems which confront Christians today, and 
is to derive from this analysis an understanding of the best 
way in which the inheritance from the past may be trans- 
formed into a theology which shall enable men to live positively 
and to transmit to the next generation the inspiration of a 



5o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

dynamic faith. Our beliefs are thus rooted in a vital relation 
to the past, but they receive adequate interpretation only as 
they are related to the needs of the present. 

Literature. — The full force of the historical point of view is only 
beginning to be felt. Most definitions of Christianity still seek some 
non-historical ''essence" which shall not be subject to the vicissitudes 
of historical change. An excellent survey of such attempts at definition 
is given in Brown, The Essence of Christianity (New York: Scribner, 
1902). 

The contentions of the Catholic modernists are of great value to 
Protestant students who have been accustomed to depreciate the value 
of history. See especially The Programme of Modernism (New York: 
Putnam, 1908), and Lolsy, The Gospel and the Church (New York: 
Scribner, 191 2). 

One of the clearest and best discussions of the developmental char- 
acter of Christianity is given by Case, The Evolution of Early Christianity, 
chap, i (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1914). See also 
Pfleiderer, Evolution and Theology (London: Black, 1900); Troeltsch, 
''Was heisst Wesen des Christentums ? " in Die Christliche Welt, 1903, 
cols. 443 ff.; and Die Ahsolutheit des Christentums und die Religions- 
geschichte (Tubingen: Mohr, 1902; 2d ed., 191 2). 

Outlines of a theological method based on this historical point of 
view are given by Troeltsch, "The Dogmatics of the Religions geschicht- 
liche Schule," American Journal of Theology, XVll (January, 1913), 1-21; 
and G. B. Smith, "The Task and Method of Systematic Theology," 
American Journal of Theology, XIV (April, 19 10), 215-33; see also 
G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the Changing Theology (New York: 
Macmillan, 1913); Johnson, God in Evolution, chap, ii (New York: 
Longmans, Green, & Co., 191 1). 

III. THE MAIN DOCTRINAL PROBLEMS 

What is the meaning of religion? — For the type of theology 
which finds the content of doctrine in an authorized system 
the primary question must be as to the validity of this 
authority. Thus the authenticity of Scripture must be 
estabHshed by orthodox theology before one is scientifically 
justified in deriving doctrines from Scripture. If, however, 
we regard doctrines as the creations of religious thinking for 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 509 

the purpose of interpreting religious experience, the first task of 
the theologian must be to inquire concerning the nature of 
reHgious experience. This approach to the study of theology 
was initiated over a century ago by Schleiermacher, whose 
famous Discourses on Religion are today as stimulating and 
suggestive as anything which one may read on the subject of 
religion. 

The student of modern theology should realize that his 
primary task is to understand the vital nature and function of 
religion. If interest is once aroused in this direct subject- 
matter, many of the formal topics of theological controversy — ■ 
such as discussions concerning the exact location of ''author- 
ity" — cease to be of importance. One is thus free to address 
himself to the immediate problems of our real religious life. 

Fortunately the student of theology today may avail him- 
self of numerous admirable studies of the nature and function 
of religion. It is true that these investigations are usually 
made in the realm of non-Christian religions, for it has been 
possible to employ the methods of scientific inquiry here with- 
out encountering theological prejudice. There is at all events a 
certain advantage in looking at the field of rehgion objectively 
in realms where personal emotion does not play so large a 
part. When one has learned to appreciate the significance 
of historical evolution in the case of other religions, one will 
have received a training which is invaluable in overcoming the 
dogmatic attitude in the case of Christianity. 

The study of the nature of rehgion should by all means 
include the reading of the utterances of religious souls in the 
form of prayers, raeditations, appeals to God, exhortations to 
men, and the like. No reading of a second-hand account of a 
religion can furnish the direct impression of its power which 
comes from the original utterances of a devout soul. Such a 
book as James's Varieties of Religious Experience shows a 
method by which one may recover the inner meaning of 
religion. If one comes to appreciate the intense reality of 



5IO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

such aspirations and struggles as find expression in utterances 
of personal religious conviction, one will be preserved from 
the mistake of attempting to deal with doctrines in an external, 
formal fashion. 

Literature. — ^Toy, Introduction to the History of Religions (Boston: 
Ginn & Co., 19 13), gives nearly forty pages of comprehensive bibliog- 
raphy. Schleiermacher, Reden iiber die Religion (published first in 1799; 
English translation by Oman, On Religion [London: Kegan Paul, 1893]), 
is a classic which every student should know. 

Of recent works the following are especially suggestive: Tiele, 
Elements of the Science of Religion (New York: Scribner, 1899); James, 
The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: Longmans, Green, 
& Co., 1902); Bousset, Das Wesen der Religion (Tubingen: Mohr, 
1906; English translation by Low, What Is Religion? [New York: 
Putnam, 1907]); Hoffding, Philosophy of Religion (London: Macmillan, 
1906); Eucken, Der Wahrheitsgehalt der Religion (Leipzig: Veit, 1901; 
English translation by Jones, The Truth of Religion [New York: Putnam, 
191 1]); Ames, The Psychology of Religious Expe rience (Boston: Hough- 
ton Mifflin Co., 1910); King, The Development of Religion (New York: 
Macmillan, 19 10); Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience 
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 191 2). 

Religion as a problem of cosmic adjustment. — Religion 
is an experience of vital unity with the great forces in environ- 
ment upon which life is ultimately dependent. It brings 
the most significant enlargement of experience. It is this 
enrichment of life which is important. Doctrines and rituals 
are means to this end. The doctrines of religion vary with 
varying conceptions of the nature of our environment. 
Where animism prevails, religion will take the form of propi- 
tiating a host of spirits. Where environment is philo- 
sophically conceived, religion takes the «form of a mystic 
understanding of the significance of one's unity with the 
ultimate reality. 

To feel the wonder and the mystery of this experience of 
cosmic adjustment is essential if one is to interpret religion 
aright. When theology becomes exclusively devoted to doc- 
trines as such, it becomes dry and formal. Doctrines must 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 511 

always be viewed as means of interpreting the attempt of 
man to find a sense of vital unity between his life and the 
power which works unseen in the world upon which man 
is dependent. Let the student always remember that the 
real test of value in a theology is not so much its logical 
completeness, or its philosophical consistency, as its ability 
to furnish ideas and interpretations which enable men to 
realize the experience of satisfactory adjustment to the cosmic 
reality on which they are dependent. 

Now, men cannot employ in their religious quest cosmic 
ideas which are scientifically absurd. When one has come 
to abandon animism, a theology which proclaims the necessity 
of dealing with spirits and devils is impossible. The theology 
of the Bible employs some cosmic ideas which we today have 
outgrown. To continue to embody these ideas in a modern 
theology means to make such a theology useless for the reli- 
gious hfe of all who do not hold a pre-scientific conception of 
the world. The student must seek to express the vital rela- 
tions of rehgious experience in such a way as to enable men to 
pursue the religious quest in the environment which is r^al to 
them. For example, before entering upon a discussion of the 
problem of miracles, one should ask whether the idea of mir- 
acle is one which we actually employ in our thought of the 
activities of the universe. If we cannot invoke the aid of 
miracles today, modern religion will ignore miracles and will 
lay primary stress on those aspects of cosmic reality which 
are active factors in our life. The student should constantly 
remember that the purpose of theology is not to discuss 
scholastic questions^ — and any question which has no immedi- 
ate relation to our life-problems is scholastic — but rather to 
furnish conceptions which are helpful in establishing vital 
relations with the unseen forces of the universe. Doctrines 
which. do not furnish this help are worse than useless; they are 
burdens which hamper and discourage men. A modern 
theology must face the problem of finding a rightful home for 



512 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

the spiritual aspirations of the soul in the universe which we 
moderns know. 

Literature. — Schleiermacher's Discourses on Religion, already men- 
tioned in other connections, is a classic expression of modern religious 
aspirations. Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience 
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 19 12), is especially suggestive on 
this aspect of religion. 

Other good discussions are Herrmann, Die Religion im Verhdltniss 
zumWelterkennen und zur Sittlichkeit {Halle: Niemeyer, 1879); Eucken, 
Der Wahrheitsgehalt der Religion (Leipzig: Veit, 1901; English trans- 
lation by Jones, The Truth of Religion [New York: Putnam, 19 11]); 
Foster, The Function of Religion in Man's Struggle for Existence (Chicago: 
The University of Chicago Press, 1909). A suggestive analysis is given 
by Watson, "The Logic of Religion," American Journal of Theology, 
XX (January and April, 1916), 81-101 and 244-65. 

The social and ethical significance of religion. — If cosmic 
forces are believed to be capricious, religion will be full of fear 
and superstition. If these cosmic forces can be believed to be 
subject to an ethical purpose, religion itself becomes ethical 
in content. This ethical emphasis is one of the striking 
charajcteristics of Christianity. If we can feel assured that 
the social and ethical values which we most prize in our earthly 
life are sustained by the cosmic order, we have a religion which 
is ethically satisfactory. 

Christian theology has been conspicuously successful in 
harmonizing the ethical and the cosmic aspects of spiritual: 
life. Indeed, so completely has it laid emphasis on moral 
conceptions that it is constantly in danger of being conceived 
solely in terms of ethics. Important as is this moral emphasis, 
the student should not forget the fundamental problem of our 
cosmic welfare. Religion brings to the moral endeavors of 
man the reinforcement of a cosmic faith. Christianity insists 
on both the cosmic and the ethical aspects of religious experi- 
ence. The unfortunate consequence of allowing either of 
these elements to be sacrificed may be observed in Hinduism, 
where social aspirations have been eliminated by a highly 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 513 

mystical type of religious speculation, and in Confucianism, 
where ethics has found no adequate cosmic support, and hence 
has been supplemented by superstitions with a cosmic appeal. 
The task of Christian theology is to bring out the implica- 
tions of its unified cosmic-ethical ideals. 

Literature. — Kant is the classic exponent of the religion of pure 
morality. His Religion innerhalh der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft trans- 
lated Christianity into ethics. The Ritschlian school of theologians has 
followed Kant in this emphasis, but has stressed the need of redemption 
from our moral defects. Recent interpretations of religion almost 
exclusively in terms of moral and social values are given by Hoffding, 
Philosophy of Religion (London: Macmillan, 1906); Ames, The Psy- 
chology of Religious Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1910); 
and King, The Development of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1910). 

The Christian doctrine of God. — ^Christian theology has 
summed up the content of religious faith in its doctrine that 
man's fate in the universe is in the control of a morally perfect 
God, who shapes events according to the demands of absolute 
righteousness. Thus one's happy adjustment to the forces 
of the universe involves moral fidehty ; and, on the other hand, 
one's moral efforts have cosmic significance. 

The new cosmic consciousness. — The doctrine of God 
has been traditionally expressed in terms derived from a con- 
ception of the universe which modern science has modified. 
God was thought of as a transcendent sovereign, whose 
"decrees" must be obeyed by all nature. These decrees took 
the form of "laws" of nature, which might at any time be 
"suspended" if the purposes of the sovereign demanded a 
miracle. Man's religious history depended upon a series 
of "dispensations," the last and highest of which was intro- 
duced by Christ. "Special providences" might be expected 
in human experience. It was believed that this world is 
eventually to be brought to a sudden end by a cosmic catas- 
trophe dehberately brought about by the divine will. God 
was thus pictured in anthropomorphic terms, and his relation 



514 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

to the world and to man was represented as a matter deter- 
mined only by his sovereign will. 

Today we face a universe of unimaginable extent in space 
and in time. We explain its structure and its behavior in 
terms of immanent forces rather than by reference to an 
anthropomorphic will. No longer do we seek the aid of 
personal cosmic spirits in practical life. Exorcism, which was 
so prominent a function of early Christian activity, no longer 
exists among us. Science is everywhere using impersonal 
ideas in explaining the universe. The anthropomorphism 
of former days is inapplicable to our present situation. 
In response to this new cosmic consciousness many of the 
former characteristics of the doctrine of God have vanished 
or have been radically modified. The Calvinistic doctrine of 
'' decrees" is becoming a theological curiosity. The idea 
of *' creation" has been merged into the vaguer conception of 
evolution, where the exact extent of the divine activity is 
uncertain. Miracles are now ''problems" rather than un- 
doubted realities. The conception of God is thus undergoing 
a reconstruction, in response to the pressure of the new cosmic 
ideas. In this reconstruction men are likely to become be- 
wildered. It will be helpful if the student can keep in mind 
one or two significant aspects of the theological problem which 
deserve especial mention. 

The religious problem distinguished from the metaphysical 
problem. — It is confusing to find the word '' God" employed in 
two very different senses. It is used by philosophers to indi- 
cate the metaphysical ultimate, and it is used by religious men 
to signify the spiritual life with which man may have personal 
communion. The history of religion shows that the gods of 
religious faith are not necessarily identical with the cosmic 
ultimate. Indeed, it is quite possible to have a religion in 
which the object of worship is a spirit working within the 
cosmos somewhat as man works within it. Practical religion 
demands a God who will actually help man in his Hfe. God 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 515 

must be ''good" in the sense that he takes sides against the 
evil in the world. Now, philosophy is concerned to discover 
a metaphysical ultimate which will include in its higher unity 
all the disparate aspects of the world. The ''God" of the 
philosopher must include all aspects of reality, both what 
We call good and what we call bad. This metaphysical 
ultimate thus becomes too remote to be "touched with the 
feeling of our infirmities." The problem of evil is solved by 
showing a metaphysical way of transmuting supposed evil 
into actual good. But practical religion longs for a God who 
will take sides against evil and insure the victory of the good. 

In the interests of practical religion much recent theology 
has attempted to push the metaphysical problem into the 
background. The Ritschlian theology insisted on banishing 
all metaphysics from religious doctrine just because of the 
colorless character of the "God" of philosophical speculation. 
Professor James ^ with his keen sensitiveness to the practical 
exigencies of life, suggested a "plurahstic universe," in 
which God should be conceived as a particular being alongside 
of other beings. On the other hand, men like Professor Royce 
attempt to introduce into the conception of the philosophical 
Absolute a real sympathy with finite occurrences. These 
movements are indications of the practical emphasis of 
religion, and their significance should be appreciated by the 
Christian theologian. 

Some questions concerning the nature of God^^The 
construction of a doctrine of God should always be guided 
by the rehgious interest. Religion is concerned to affirm 
the possibility of a vital spiritual relationship in which the 
Soul of man feels- that it has a rightful home in the*universe. 
The traditional doctrines concerning God should be critically 
examined, first, in order to see how they grew up in response 
to the demand for a vehicle of thought adequate to interpret 
the full significance of religious experience, and, secondly, in 
order to ask whether these doctrines are" still capable of 



5i6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

promoting our worship. These practical inquiries will pre- 
vent one from going astray into fields of metaphysical specu- 
lation which are religiously barren. For example, instead 
of regarding the doctrine of the Trinity as a theological- 
metaphysical puzzle to be solved by some sort of acute logic, 
the student should ask what function the doctrine served 
in the religious faith of the age in which it was wrought 
out. What were the problems of that time which led men to 
feel such concern over the matter ? A study of the doctrine in 
this historical fashion will disclose certain presuppositions and 
certain religious ideas of the third century which demanded 
the discussion of the nature of God in terms of "essence/' 
But do our presuppositions today and our religious problems 
lead us to be interested in the definition of the divine ''es- 
sence"? Only after this has been determined can we know 
the significance of the doctrine of the Trinity for modern 
faith. Most polemic discussions of today are theologically 
useless just because they do not raise this fundamental ques- 
tion. 

In particular, the student should remember that our 
inherited doctrine of God was formulated under the influ- 
ence of political ideas which have been modified in important 
ways in modern times. The phrase ''the sovereignty of 
God" harks back to the days of belief in the divine right 
of kings. But today we believe in a democratic form of 
government which allows citizens to call rulers to account. 
If criticism is a valuable moral asset in our political life, can 
we exclude it from religious thinking ? May we not demand 
that God shall be required to receive the moral approval of 
men? This spirit of democracy with its insistence on the 
rights of men is responsible for the current protests against 
such ideas as that God has a right to elect some to salvation 
and to pass others by; or that he has a right to insist on some 
rigid "plan of salvation" purely because he has chosen this 
rather than any other plan; or that he forbids men to apply 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 517 

critical tests to the Bible. Men who believe in democracy 
insist on worshiping a God whose excellence is to be found, not 
in an aristocratic ''sovereignty/' but rather in a self-sacrificing 
identification of himself with his children in their endeavors 
after righteousness. The ''immanence" of God is thus a 
leading conception of modern theology. But religiously 
this immanence does not mean mere essential pantheism — 
this would be a metaphysical rather than a religious con- 
ception. It means rather the thought of God as the untiring 
co-worker with men, always dynamically present in their 
spiritual endeavors. 

It is evident that the language of traditional theology, 
taken, as it is, largely from a political philosophy which we 
have outgrown, is not suitable to bring out the full meaning of 
modern religious faith. The constructive work of theology 
must be in the direction of discovering ideas which will rein- 
force our actual religious experience in a democratic world. 
This problem, unfortunately, has not yet been generally grasped 
by theologians. Most current discussions, recognizing that 
there are difficulties in the way of holding the older conception 
of God, seek to meet these difficulties by resorting to modern 
philosophy as an aid to reconstruction. Theology thus is 
diverted into a consideration of the metaphysical rather 
than the religious problem. Only a persistent determina- 
tion to base critical reconstruction on the actual demands 
of religious faith can give the insight which is needed for the 
construction of* a theology as contrasted with a philosophy of 
religion. The latter is essential; but it cannot serve as the 
working faith of a worshiping community. 

Moreover, in so far as the doctrine of God has been philo- 
sophically interpreted, it has embodied the metaphysics of the 
ancient Greek world. But modern philosophy has engaged 
in radical criticism of this metaphysics. Whereas Platonism 
sought to define God so as to remove him completely from 
the changes and accidents of our finite world, thus making 



5i8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

transcendence of primary importance, modern philosophy is 
employing dynamic and evolutionary conceptions, thus 
involving God in the movement of the universe. Thus the 
influence of philosophy as well as that of poHtical thinking 
leads away from the fundamental categories of the older con- 
ception of God. 

A vital faith during theological reconstruction. — If the 
criticism of traditional theology is inspired by the desire to 
make doctrine more directly and efficiently serviceable in 
the promotion of the religious hfe, the process of criticism 
itself comes to have a religious meaning. Even if one has 
not yet found an adequate conception of God, one can feel 
the enrichment of life which comes from living and thinking 
and aspiring in relation to the wprshipful aspects of environ- 
ment. Faith may thus actually flourish during a period of 
intellectual doubt and questioning. By relating doctrines 
to ^the religious needs of men one centers attention on the 
primary reahty of the quest of men after God. So long as 
this quest is real and earnest, one's discussion of theology 
will always be vital and will always serve as a practical basis 
for prayer and for faith, whether one has reached satisfactory 
doctrinal statements or not. Perhaps no greater service 
could be rendered today than to persuade men of the positive 
significance of a questioning faith. It may be religiously more 
fruitful than the kind of faith which believes itself to be in 
possession of final doctrines. Such a faith is contributing 
to the better doctrines of the future. ' 

Literature. — For the historical development of the Christian doctrine 
of God see Gwatkin, The Knowledge oj God (Edinburgh: Clark, 1906). 
For readable presentations of a conception which preserves the Chris- 
tian ideal in the light of modern ideas see Clarke, The Christian Docirine 
oj God (New York: Scribner, 1909); Harris, God, the Lord and Creator of 
All (New York: Scribner, 1897); and Clarke, Can I Believe in God the 
Father? (New York: Scribner, 1899). 

The critical and philosophical problems involved in the doctrine are 
well treated in Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience (New 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 519 

Haven: Yale University Press, 191 2); Royce and Howison, The Con- 
ception of God (New York: Macmillan, 1897); and Wobbermin, Der 
christUche Gottesglauhe in seinem Verhaltniss zur heutigen Philosophie und 
Naturwissenschaft, 2d ed. (Berlin: Duncker, 1907). 

Adverse criticisms of the traditional identification of God with the 
metaphysical Absolute are found in McTaggart, Some Dogmas of Religion 
(London: Arnold, 1906); James, Pragmatism (New York: Longmans, 
Green, & Co., 1907), and A Pluralistic Universe (New York: Long- 
mans, Green, & Co., 1909); and Johnson, God in Evolution (New York: 
Longmans, Green, & Co., 191 1). 

Suggestive accounts of the reasons why the traditional doctrine of 
God needs revision are found in McGiffert, The Rise of Modern Religious 
Ideas, chaps, x-xii (New York: Macmillan, 19 15), and G. B. Foster, 
The Function of Religion in the Struggle for Existence (Chicago: The 
University of Chicago Press, 1909). Ten Broeke in the latter portion 
of A Constructive Basis for Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1914) shows 
what a fruitful use of modern philosophy may be made by the theologian. 

What do we mean by salvation? — -The need of keeping 
actual religious experience and its demands constantly in 
mind becomes especially evident in treating the doctrine of 
salvation. If one begins with an a priori conception of the 
"plan of salvation," one is certain to find one's self dealing 
with abstractions. The traditional soteriology presupposed 
the historicity of Adam's fall and started from the assumption 
that mankind needs to be saved primarily from the taint 
inherited from Adam. But modern anthropology has dis- 
credited this way of determining the nature of man and of 
sin. Moreover, the traditional doctrine of atonement em- 
bodied conceptions of penalty and of satisfaction which are 
being abandoned in modern criminology and penology. We 
cannot attribute to God a method of dealing with delinquency 
which would be condemned if practiced in our courts of 
justice. For example, to insist dogmatically, as an a priori 
principle, that "without the shedding of blood there is no 
remission of sin" is both foolish and futile in an age which has 
abandoned the conception of bloody sacrifice, and which is 
loudly demanding the aboHtion of capital punishment. To 



520 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

talk emotionally about ^'sin" in the abstract without any 
adequate psychological analysis of moral consciousness means 
to encourage artificiality in religion. The student must, if 
he is to work out in this realm convictions with moral power, 
rigidly compel himself to abandon the method of mere 
rhetorical exposition of traditional ideas, adopting instead the 
method of honestly asking what the evils of our life are and 
how we may hope for deliverance from their bondage. 

The need of a broader conception of salvation. — Men 
need to be saved from mental perplexity and despair as truly 
as they need to be saved from sin. Many pastors and teachers 
deal with doubt as if it necessarily involved moral delinquency. 
Fortunately, we are coming to see that much of the doubt of 
our day is due to a fine sense of personal honor in dealing 
with religious beliefs, involving the willingness to endure 
suffering if need be rather than be guilty of the slightest 
falsehood in reference to religious truths. There are hosts of 
well-intentioned persons today whose religious life has been 
made uncertain because of honest doubt induced by modern 
education. Such persons can no longer think in terms of the 
traditional creeds. They live consciously in relation to the 
complex world of modern scientific thought rather than in 
relation to the cosmos depicted in the Bible. With the dis- 
crediting of the older doctrines they often suffer spiritual 
agonies. To call this typical religious need of our day ^' sin" 
is hopelessly to misunderstand the problem of "salvation" 
in such instances. To be "saved" here means to find new 
ideas which may both express the honest convictions of 
one who lives in the modern world and lift one into the con- 
sciousness of communion with God. Only an inductive study 
of this characteristic experience of religious doubt can furnish 
one with data upon which to construct a theory of salvation. 

Literature. — Such an autobiographical sketch as Sir Edmund Gosse's 
Father and Son (New York: Scribner, 1907) is an invaluable means of 
appreciating the situation. See also Van Dyke, The Gospel for an Age of 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 521 

Doubt (New York: Macmillan, 1897); Romanes, Thoughts on Religion, 
2d ed. (Chicago: Open Court Pub. Co., 1896); Wimmer, My Struggle 
for Light (New York: Putnam, 1903). 

Of far more importance than the attempt to deal with this type of 
experience theoretically is the task of knowing the critical scholarship 
which makes the older doctrines unsatisfactory. The critical historical 
study of the New Testament, for example, or an acquaintance with the 
sociological method of interpreting human life, will bring one to a 
realization of the importance of the problem above outlined. 

The problem of sin. — In dealing with the conception of 
sin it is imperative likewise to use the inductive method. Too 
often it has been taken for granted that the experience of Paul 
or Augustine or Luther is typical. Can this experience be 
universalized ? Is it to be expected that every soul will pass 
through so dramatic a crisis ? Theologically, sin has been 
measured not so much with reference to the experience of the 
individual as against the infinity of God. If this interpreta- 
tion be too logically carried out, there is danger that God will 
seem to be less charitable than good men, and the moral value 
of the interpretation is thus lost. 

Let the student ask empirically the question why sin actu- 
ally exists in human life. Psychology arid social science 
furnish valuable insight here. What are the actual facts con- 
cerning heredity? Is moral delinquency due primarily to 
what we inherit ? Or is it due largely to the social environ- 
ment and to the education which the individual receives? 
In view of the facts established by sociology, can we treat 
sin entirely in terms of individual conduct and responsibiUty ? 
How much does an enfeebled body have to do with moral 
delinquency ? How far are overcrowding and undernourish- 
ment responsible for low moral standards? If such facts 
as are suggested by the foregoing questions are considered, 
how ought a doctrine of sin to be formulated ? No theological 
student has any right to ignore the imperative necessity for a 
radical reconstruction of the doctrine of sin in the light of 
modern knowledge. 



522 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

When once the facts are clearly seen, the student will dis- 
cover that, instead of minimizing the emphasis of Christianity 
on sin, he must face a terribly complex and powerful realm of 
evil which holds men in wrongdoing. Every individual is 
bound by physical and by social conditions to realities which 
thwart his moral purposes. Poor eyesight or adenoids may 
so exclude a child from normal conditions of activity as to 
induce hopelessness and passionate attempts to find relief 
through lawlessness or trickery. Employees may be com- 
pelled by industrial conditions to do dishonest work, knowing 
that it is dishonest. Even the church member may be deriv- 
ing his income from the proceeds of iniquity, if he is ignorant 
as to the exact nature of his investments. A man who 
honestly desires to be a disciple of Jesus finds the hindrances 
to discipleship to be so many and so serious that the need 
for salvation is keenly felt. The frank recognition of these 
real foes of the good life brings a much more convincing 
knowledge of the sinful life than is the attempt to trace our 
ills to an inheritance from Adam. The realization of the facts 
which everyone ought to know is sufficient to produce an 
earnest longing for deliverance. 

Literature. — The familiar theological doctrine of sin is thoroughly 
treated in Tennant, The Origin and Propagation of Sin (Cambridge: 
University Press, 1902); Robinson, The Christian Doctrine of Man 
(Edinburgh: Clark, 191 1); and Orchard, Modern Theories 0} Sin 
(London: Clarke, 1909). R. Mackintosh, Christianity and Sin (New 
York: Scribner, 1914), gives a very complete bibliography. 

The empirical point of view, dealing with moral facts of our modern 
life rather than with adjustments of the traditional theological doctrine, 
is vigorously represented in Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social 
Crisis (New York: Macmillan, 1907); Ross, Sin and Society (Boston: 
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1907); Vedder, The Gospel of Jesus and the Prob- 
lems of Democracy (New York: Macmillan, 19 14). 

Attempts at a constructive statement from this point of view are 
found in Hyde, Sin and Its Forgiveness (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 
1909), and G. B. Smith, in Burton, Smith, and Smith, Biblical Ideas of 
Atonement, chap, xiii (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909). 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND . CHRISTIAN ETHICS 523 

The interpretation of salvation in terms of supernaturalism. 

■ — The spiritual deHverance which a man finds through 
reHgious experience is so wonderful when contrasted with the 
evils which weigh us down that it has very generally been 
interpreted in terms of a supernatural change. The Catholic 
regards the sacraments as the miraculous means of saving 
man; Protestantism has emphasized trust in a supernaturally 
revealed "Word of God/' and in evangelistic circles has 
insisted upon a crisis in experience so unusual as to demand a 
supernatural explanation. Thp student should be on his 
guard lest a discussion of supernaturahsm be thrust into the 
foreground and distract attention from the facts of the 
religious Hfe. It often happens that men who have come to 
question the adequacy of supernaturalistic interpretations 
have been led to doubt the possibility of a vital religious expe- 
rience of salvation. It is important to recognize that supers 
naturalism is only one way of explaining the facts. 

The conception of religious experience as a natural devel- 
ment.— Today we are coming more and more to think of 
religion as a normal and natural experience. Those who con- 
fuse experience with its doctrinal interpretation are greatly 
perplexed by this tendency, for it seems like abandoning 
fundamental realities of Christianity. But the history of 
religion has made us aware that, so far as the supernaturaHstic 
details of a doctrine of salvation are concerned, these appear 
in various forms in pagan religions as well as in Christianity. 
Sacrifices to appease the deity, incarnations to bring the deity 
to help mankind, the suffering of a savior-god to bring redemp^ 
tion, sacraments with regenerating power, and mystical 
exaltation to a sense of oneness with God-^these may all b6' 
found in non-Christian rehgions. The distinctive qualities 
of Christian salvation must be looked for in the kind of moral 
and religious character produced by Christian faith. 

Now, the kind of character which we call Christian may be 
developed in an entirely ''natural" way. A child may grow 



524 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

up in a Christian family and never know a time when he was 
not trying to appreciate and appropriate the Christian Hfe to 
the best of his abihty. In such a case one is more conscious of 
the spiritual influence of Christian people today than he is of 
supernatural interventions. 

Religious life more important than doctrine. — It is to be 
feared that more attention is usually paid to the formal doc- 
trines of salvation than to the realities of the religious life. 
For a vital understanding of the religious life Augustine's 
Confessions are far more important than his anti -Pelagian 
theology. Luther's sermons and his Tahle-Talk reveal evan- 
gelical religion better than the later Protestant formulations 
of the doctrine of justification. Anselm's doctrine of satis 
faction is really an utterance of speculative apologetics in- 
spired by current political ideas rather than an interpretation 
of religious experience. Let the student learn to seek direct 
testimonies of the saving power of God. Let him remem- 
ber that to begin with an elaboration of a ''doctrine" of 
atonement or of regeneration before one has undertaken to 
appreciate the facts of our religious life means to spend time 
in barren scholastic discussions. 

The need of a revised theological vocabulary. — It is 
characteristic of our day that men are seeking to get rid of the 
scholasticism which inevitably accompanies a mere deductive 
method in theology. We are attempting to define salvation 
in terms of inner spiritual attainments rather than in relation 
to some external "transaction." The life of Jesus becomes 
. the standard by which we estimate both the need of salvation 
and the power of Jesus to save men. But the inertia of 
theological thinking tends to conserve terms which have had a 
vital significance in relation to realities of former days, but 
which are artificial in our own day. To insist upon a doc- 
trine of bloody sacrifice in an age which has completely 
abandoned such sacrifices in actual life serves no purpose save 
to confuse men. To describe the "work" of Christ by the 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY A^D CHRISTIAN ETHICS 525 

traditional titles of ''prophet/' ''priest," and "king" involves 
the use of terms which have largely ceased to function in 
actual life today. The Ritschlian theology furnishes an 
especially good illustration of the laborious explanations and 
reinterpretations which are necessary if one employs terms 
belonging to an outgrown culture to interpret the meaning of 
Jesus in relation to a different culture. 

The student of theology should recognize the danger of 
artificiality which lurks in the use of outgrown terms. The 
most suggestive expositions of the doctrine of salvation today 
are adopting conceptions which are significant in our modern 
life. The so-called "moral influence" or "vital" theories 
of the atonement represent attempts to find analogies in 
our best spiritual life which may serve to interpret our 
relation to Jesus. We are coming more and more to adopt 
the empirical attitude which cares more for facts than for 
labels. The student should constantly ask himself such 
questions as the following : Just what are the evils from which 
we need to be saved? Is terror at the wrath of God the 
most real evil of which we are conscious ? If not, are we 
interpreting religious experience adequately by a doctrine 
of salvation which presupposes that the work of Christ was 
primarily to satisfy God ? Are not the transformation of 
human ideals and the stimulation of new spiritual power 
primary ends ? What about the social and industrial cir- 
cumstances which are responsible for so much sin and misery 
in our modern world ? Are we setting forth a doctrine of sal- 
vation which includes the way of release from these evils ? If 
one has felt the blighting consequences of modern materialistic 
philosophy, can his salvation be expressed in a doctrine 
formulated before men were aware of the immensity and the 
uniformity of our universe ? Have we done justice to the 
inner life of Jesus, with its spiritual victory over the demoraliz- 
ing forces which everywhere assail humanity? Ought not 
this as well as his crucifixion to receive adequate interpreta- 



526 GUIDE TO STUDY 0F» CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

tion ? The persistent endeavor to meet the facts of our 
actual experience and to judge the efhcacy of any theory of 
salvation in the light of those facts will go far to save one 
from formalism and from the undesirable habit of mere 
rhetorical adaptation of familiar phrases to changed con- 
ditions. There is a great constructive task in this field of 
doctrine which has not yet been adequately undertaken. 

Literature.— The most significant recent works on the doctrine of 
salvation have attempted to interpret the significance of the work of 
Christ so as to do justice to our modern ethical and spiritual ideals. 
Stevens, The Christian Doctrine of Salvation (New York: Scribner, 1905), 
gives an excellent survey of the history of the doctrine and a criticism of 
recent treatises. Another good historical survey is by Sabatier, La Doc- 
trine deV expiation et son evolution historique (Paris: Fischbacher, 1904; 
English translation by Leuliette, The Doctrine of the Atonement and Its 
Historical Evolution [New York: Putnam, 1904]). 

Important treatises are those by J. McLeod Campbell, The Nature of 
the Atonement afid Its Relation to the Remission of Sins (London and New 
York: Macmillan, 1855; 6th ed., 1895); A. Ritschl, Die christliche 
Lehre von der Rechtfertigung und Versohnung, 3d ed. (Bonn: Marcus, 
1889; English translation of 2 vols, by Black and by Mackintosh and 
Macaulay, The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation 
[Edinburgh: Edmonston, 1872; Clark, 1900]); Bushnell, The Vicarious 
Sacrifice (New York: Scribner, 1866); Dale, The Atonement (London: 
Congregational Union, 1875; 14th ed., 1892); Denney, The Atonement 
and the Modern Mind, 3d ed. (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 19 10). A 
good selected bibliography is found in Burton, Smith, and Smith, Biblical 
Ideas of Atonement (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909). 

The relation between the conception of salvation and the 
doctrine of the person of Christ. — The historical method of 
interpretation reveals to us the close relation between the 
religious ideals of an age and the significance which it assigns 
to Christ. Christian faith has always attempted to discover in 
the character of Jesus precisely those qualities which are 
necessary for the salvation of men. The early Christians, 
looking for salvation in terms of the advent of the messianic 
kingdom, found the primary significance of Jesus in his 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 527 

messiahship. The Christians of the Nicene period, conceiving 
salvation to consist in the transformation of corruptible human 
nature by divine power, declared that the important thing 
about Christ was his divine ''nature." Mediaeval doctrine 
and early Protestant theology, dominated by forensic ideas, set 
forth the work of Christ in concepts taken from current 
penology. Our own age, interested as it is in the educatioh 
and the inner maturity of the spirit, is calhng attention to the 
spiritual resources of the inner Hit of Jesus. In order to 
study inteUigently the doctrine of the person and work of 
Jesus Christ, one must take into account the practical inter- 
ests of religion which make men eager to discover in Jesus 
precisely the qualities which they are conscious of needing 
for deliverance from evil. 

The necessity for eliminating some a priori considerations. 
— The problem of interpreting the significance of Jesus for 
Christian faith is complicated because of certain apologetic 
interests. Since the older appeal to the Bible as an "abso- 
lute" revelation has been modified, theologians have generally 
transferred to Christ the emphasis on absoluteness which 
formerly was put upon the Bible. Just as the a priori belief 
in the infallibility of Scripture leads to the strong desire to find 
in the Bible that which one believes to be absolutely true, 
regardless of historical considerations, so the apologetic 
purpose of declaring Christ to be the absolute and final revela- 
tion leads men to feel that they ought to find in his character 
precisely those traits which modern men believe to be essential 
in an ideal person. The student must take especial care to 
test and verify christological statements just because of this 
strong apologetic interest in the formulation of the doctrine. 
It is not necessary to trace every valuable element of Chris- 
tianity back to Jesus. 

What are the historical facts concerning Jesus?— Mani- 
festly an accurate statement of the character of Jesus must 
rest on a knowledge of the historical facts concerning him. 



528 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

But at this point students are just now compelled to face a 
serious difficulty. At present historical criticism of the 
sources of our information is at a stage of investigation where 
the inadequacy of former interpretations is clearly seen; 
but great uncertainty exists as to many important historical 
details. We are compelled to acknowledge that in the exist- 
ing state of historical criticism we simply do not know many 
things which we should like to know. The Synoptic Gospels 
represent behefs which had been shaped by the theological 
questionings of thirty or forty years. The New Testament 
writers were primarily concerned to use the traditions regard- 
ing Jesus in such a way as to derive satisfactory answers 
to the religious problems which confronted them. Powerful 
selective theological influences thus determined the content 
of the gospel narratives. Can we with any degree of cer- 
tainty press back of the definitely conditioned beliefs of the 
early Christians so as to obtain satisfactory answers to the 
questions which we moderns want to ask ? 

The distinction between the historical question and the 
theological question. — The student is likely to approach the 
problem of formulating a Chris tology with the presupposition 
that if the exact teachings of the New Testament concerning 
Jesus can be ascertained all that a modern theologian has to 
do is to expound these teachings in the form of a connected and 
logical doctrine. But historical criticism shows us that the 
New Testament writings are themselves the products of theo- 
logical interests. They reflect the religious ideals of the first 
century. Later forms of Christology reflected later ideals, 
and our Christology will inevitably embody our own ideals. 
Now, since the task of modern theology is admittedly to inter- 
pret the realities of our experience in the light of all that his- 
tory and criticism can furnish, the student of theology need 
not feel completely discouraged because he must leave many 
historical questions so largely unsolved. The task for theol- 
ogy is simply to use all means at our disposal to appreciate 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 529 

the significance of Jesus for men of today. Our peculiar 
religious interests will lead us to discern elements in the re- 
ported deeds and words of Jesus which were largely overlooked 
by men of former days. For example, the early Christians were 
not at all interested in the private life of Jesus. They selected 
and treasured in their doctrine those traits which enabled them 
to believe him to be the Messiah who would soon come on 
the clouds in glory. But time has proved that eschatological 
expectation to have been mistaken. We are no longer looking 
for the cure of our social evils by miraculous catastrophe. 
Our theology will therefore properly disregard the millenarian 
elements of the early Christian faith. On the other hand, we 
are eager to find a religious dynamic which shall enable men 
confidently and steadily to work together with God for the 
gradual reconstruction of our social order. Hence we properly 
ask whether the life of Jesus may not yield inspiration here. 
It is the task of a modern Christology to relate Jesus to this 
modern religious interest as former Christologies have related 
their statements concerning Jesus to the exigencies of the 
religious Hfe of their own times. - 

The changed interpretation of Jesus. — Since the mil- 
lenarian solution of social ills involved the belief that miracu- 
lous intervention is God's way of saving the world, it was 
natural that the character and the work of Jesus should be 
interpreted in terms of miracle. But if we have come to 
think of God's purpose as something which is slowly wrought 
out with the co-operation of men, we cannot do justice to our 
belief in Jesus by interpreting his character in terms of a 
supernaturalism which separates him from humanity. If 
God is to be found in the age-long purpose of righteousness 
steadily working through the processes of cosmic and human 
evolution, our doctrine of Christ will lay stress on the same 
activities and attributes which we afiirm of God. This means 
that to withdraw Jesus from the ''natural" order would be 
to leave him unrelated to the realm in which we find God 



530 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

working. If our faith affirms God in the world, faith will also 
discover the divinity of Jesus in the world rather than in 
some other-worldly origin. Consequently we find today a 
growing appreciation of the life of Jesus in this world and a 
lessening emphasis on such matters as the virgin birth or the 
supernatural ''nature," which find their meaning only in a 
conception of religion which defines God primarily in terms 
of transcendence. 

The need of a positive understanding of the new interest. 
— -Th^ student is likely to be distracted in his study of Chris- 
tology by the polemic treatment of the subject which is still 
prevalent. Any departure from the Christology authorized 
in the creeds of the church is felt to be a betrayal of the faith. 
The student should realize that we today are engaged in a 
creative epoch of religious thinking no less significant than the 
age which produced the Nicene Christology. Exactly as men 
then defined the significance of Jesus in terms which fitted the 
religious ideals and aspirations of the time, so we today are 
attempting to relate Jesus positively and vitally to the reli- 
gious ideals in which our best aspirations find expression. If 
the Christians of the first century had the right to employ mes- 
sianic ideas in their interpretation of the significance of Jesus; 
if the Nicene Fathers had the right to introduce into their 
Christology the mystic-philosophical ideals of their time ; if 
Luther had the right to relate Christ directly to his funda- 
mental problem of religious assurance, surely modern Chris- 
tians are justified in attempting to undertake a constructive 
task of similar import for our own day. The trend of theo- 
logical thinking during the past century has been in the 
direction of a new appreciation of the life of Jesus in human 
history. Theology must do justice to this positive ideal. 
Any negative criticisms of former christological statements 
are only incidental to the great positive motive which inspires 
modern thinking. 

Some important questions. — Before undertaking to formu- 
late a constructive doctrine of the character of Jesus one 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 531 

should analyze the famihar terms, asking what significance 
they have for modern religious experience. What is meant 
by the ''deity" of Christ ? If it is taken in its Nicene sense, 
just what meaning for religious experience can a divine 
''substance" have? What was the relation between this 
substantial conception of the deity of Christ and the sub- 
stantial conception of sacramental regeneration which pre- 
vailed at the same time ? If a modern religious experience 
does not think of God in terms of "substance," is justice 
done to the significance of Jesus by the use of the term? 
How are we actually saved by Jesus today? Is it because 
of his messianic exaltation ? Or is it also because through the 
power of his life over us we are enabled to have a triumphant 
faith ? If the latter is the case, do we do justice to the place 
of Jesus in our faith if we confine ourselves to a doctrinal 
statement, like the Apostles' Creed, which passes over the 
life of Jesus in silence, in order to exalt the messianic aspects of 
his career^? Why are we so eager today to understand and 
appreciate the experience of Jesus ? Why do we picture him 
as facing "problems" ? Why are we beginning to talk about 
the "religion of Jesus"? Did the older christological con- 
ceptions really leave room for a genuine religious experience 
of Jesus ? Such are some of the questions which must be 
asked before fruitful constructive work is possible. 

The definition of Jesus in relation to religious experience. 
— Theologically, the content of Christology is to be found by 
asking two questions: "From what do men need to be 
saved ? " and "How is Jesus related to man's salvation ? " If 
the source of our sin is located in a non-psychological "nature " 
which we inherit, we shall, of course, interpret the work of 
Christ in terms of his "natures," divine and human. But if 
we think of sin concretely and refer it to its psychological 
causes, we shall interpret salvation in terms of conscious 
experience. We shall then not ask concerning the "nature" 
of Jesus, but rather concerning his religious consciousness and 
Hfe. We shall emphasize his God-consciousness znd his ability 



532 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

to create in his disciples a trust in God which gives spiritual 
insight and moral power. As Schleiermacher declared, 
the important thing about Jesus is his God-consciousness. 
A modern Christology will seek to make clear the reli- 
gious significance of this God-consciousness in relation to the 
specific needs of modern life. The terms employed by the 
Nicene and the Chalcedonian creeds, admirably suited as they 
were to the religious thinking of their age, are not adequate 
to express this modern interest. Hence we are now in the 
process of working out a new vocabulary with which to 
express the significance of the character and the work of Jesus 
as enthusiastically and as vitally for our age as the ecumenical 
creeds expressed it for a different age. There is no more 
fruitful field for study than this realm of the creative con- 
struction of a new appreciation of Jesus. 

Literature. — The traditional religious interest, with its unwavering 
belief in salvation as an essentially supernatural transformation of human 
nature, is forcefully expounded in Briggs, The Fundamental Christian 
Faith (New York: Scribner, 19 13); Warfield, The Lord of Glory (New 
York: American Tract Soc, 1907) ; and NoUoth, The Person of Our Lord 
(New York: Macmillan, 1908). 

Most present-day discussions attempt to do justice to the modern 
interest in religious experience without departing from the older vocabu- 
lary. Important among these are Denney, Jesus and the Gospel (New 
York: Armstrong, 1909); Forsyth, The- Person and Place of Christ 
(Boston: Pilgrim Press, 1909); Sanday, Christologies Ancient and 
Modern (New York: American branch of the Oxford University 
Press, 1 9 10); Mackintosh, The Doctrine of the Person of Jesus Christ 
(New York: Scribner, 191 2). 

The Ritschlian interpretation of the significance of Jesus has been 
particularly influential, Herrmann, Der Verkehr des Christen mit Gott, 
4th ed. (Stuttgart, Cotta, 1903; English translation. The Communion of 
the Christian with God [New York: Putnam, 1906]), should be read by 
every theological student. It portrays with matchless power the inner 
life of Jesus as a redemptive force. F, L. Anderson, The Man of Naza- 
reth (New York: Macmillan, 191 5), furnishes a profound religious 
appreciation of the life of Jesus. 

The attempt to distinguish between the Jesus of history and the 
Christ of later faith has recently received much attention from German 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 533 

scholars. Loofs, What Is the Truth about Jesus Christ? (New York: 
Scribner, 1 9 1 2) , presents a conservative view. Bousset, Jesus (Tubingen : 
Mohr, 1904; English translation by Trevelyan, Jesus [New York: Put- 
nam, 1906]), and Kyrios Christos (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 
1913), set forth a liberal estimate. An excellent survey of the latest 
phases of the discussion is found in Case, The Historicity of Jesus (Chi- 
cago: The University of Chicago Press, 191 2). An analysis of the 
problem is given by G. B. Smith in ''The Christ of Faith and the Jesus 
of History," American Journal of Theology, XVIII (October, 19 14), 
521-44. 

The Christian life. — The deduetive method followed by 
the older theology placed the doctrine of God and the plan 
of salvation first and made the experience of the Christian a 
logical consequence of the dogmas of salvation. The induc- 
tive method requires one first to examine religious experience 
in order to discover the data for theological thinking. The 
significant aspects of Christian experience will therefore 
already have been considered by the student in connection 
with other doctrines. However, it is necessary to give an 
interpretation which shall gather up the implications of one's 
theological thinking and set the activities of life in relation 
to a vital faith. It is here that the fundamental difference is 
to be found between a purely scientific study of experience 
and its religious interpretation by the preacher. The scien- 
tist is not concerned to discuss the reality of the existence 
of God; he is concerned only with the idea of God and its 
psychological significance. The preacher, on the contrary, 
must make men feel the reality of the communion of the 
soul with God. He must therefore set forth religious experi- 
ence, not as mere psychology, but as theology. Religion must 
be seen to be, not only a human experiment, but also a real 
communion of man with God. 

The "Religion of the Spirit." — The theological vocabulary 
which we have inherited suggests a somewhat formal aspect 
of Christian living. Such terms as ^'regeneration," ^'con- 
version/' "sanctification," and the like have been the watch- 
words of so many theological controversies that they have 



534 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

come to be associated with narrowly dogmatic conceptions 
of the Christian hfe. Moreover, so eager have the dis- 
putants been to establish the correctness of certain views 
that arbitrary lines of chronological succession, of ''stages" 
of salvation, or of relationship to certain beliefs or ordinances 
have been laid down. In recent times preachers and theo- 
logians have been learning to observe the actual facts of reli- 
gious experience. Thus we now have many expositions of the 
Christian life which ignore the technical theological disputes 
of former days and which seek to give vital interpretation to 
life itself. 

In order to give full religious significance to the Christian 
life, it should be theologically viewed as the work of the 
divine Spirit in the heart of man. In the place of the older 
ordo salutis, with its formal discussions of the mechanics of 
salvation, we should do well to put a vital discussion of the 
work of the Holy Spirit. It is interesting to see how this 
doctrine has been neglected by both Catholic and Protestant 
theologians. Catholics find in the church the needed religious 
guidance. Protestants have been inclined to place primary 
stress on the work of Christ and the ''plan of salvation." 
Modern religious sentiment is coming to demand an inter- 
pretation which shall do justice to the immanent divine 
factors of our experience of God and salvation. The doc- 
trine of the Holy Spirit is coming into greater prominence 
because of this demand. 

The student should realize that here is a possible doctrinal 
development which will do much to offset the sense of loss occa- 
sioned by the disappearance of the method of appeal to author- 
ity. If men can be assured of the vital presence of God in 
modern life, if the "religion of the Spirit" can be confidently 
proclaimed, the disappearance of book-religion will not cause 
serious concern. Every preacher should study some of the 
religious movements of our day which exalt this conception of 
a present power of God. The thousands who are reading 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 535 

such books as Trine 's In Tune with the Infinite, or who are 
uplifted by the somewhat pantheistic conceptions of Chris- 
tian Science, witness to the power of a reHgious interpretation 
which makes hfe seem constantly interrelated with God. 
Popular evangehstic religion owes its success to precisely this 
vivid portrayal of divine power near at hand and easily avail- 
able. Liberal religion is sure to be a failure if it does not 
emphasize the conception of God as immediately accessible. 
Nowhere is there greater need of careful study and reflection 
than at this point. 

Here, as always, the student should let his theological 
thinking rest on a first-hand acquaintance with real reli- 
gious experience. The testimonies and biographies of great 
religious- spirits should be read. One should know what 
regeneration is, not merely in terms of formal doctrine, 
but as it finds expression in the lives of those who have been 
transformed by the grace of God. Such experiences as 
those narrated in Harold Begbie's Twice-horn Men should 
be carefully examined, for here we see the dramatic possi- 
bilities of Christian faith. But one should also become 
famiHar with the deep experiences of those who have had no 
dramatic crises. The utterances of Phillips Brooks are surely 
as important and as significant as are those of a converted 
drunkard. The modern minister should be able to show the 
work of the divine Spirit in the influences of Christian parents 
as truly as in the appeals of a professional evangehst. Indeed, 
in view of the fact that striking conversions are dramatically 
impressive, and hence are likely to be viewed as the most 
important evidences of the work of the Spirit, we ought to 
take especial pains to show the religious significance of the 
more normal processes of growth into a confident and strong 
sense of the presence of God. 

Some important questions. — It is essential to realize 
that modern conditions of thinking have altered certain 
aspects of Christian experience. Some of these changes are of 



536 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

considerable significance and ought to find expression in 
theology. 

For example, early Protestantism made much of the 
doctrine of assurance. To Luther any sort of uncertainty was 
spiritual torture. Salvation meant that one could without 
shadow of doubt declare and know himself to be justified and 
approved by God. The influence of this early Protestant 
conception frequently leads to deep perplexity today. One who 
is acquainted with critical scholarship cannot assure himself 
by the considerations which satisfied Luther. What then ? 
To reproduce the more naive type of certainty is impossible. 
Is one therefore less of a Christian ? We need here to con- 
sider that we do not demand absolute, unchangeable affirma- 
tions in other realms. We find abundant room for positive 
living on the basis of a tentative and growing knowledge. 
In religion we need to incorporate this attitude into the 
Christian life. To be growing toward a better acquaintance 
with God rather than to be dogmatically certain of complete 
salvation is an attitude increasingly common today. The 
religious value of this attitude should be positively appreci- 
ated. Faith that one will find in the future ever-richer and 
more satisfying practical experience of God's presence may 
take the place of the older certainty which affirmed an abso- 
lute assurance from the first. 

If one takes this more experimental attitude, many of the 
older questions disappear. The doctrine of instantaneous 
sanctification and the questions concerning ''perseverance" 
or ''falling from grace" cease to have meaning. When the 
Christian life is thought of in terms of a development rather 
than in terms of an abrupt structural change, the older 
"absolutes" cease to be matters of practical concern. The 
modern form of the doctrine will be expressed in the conception 
of a growing experience of God. 

With the changed conception of the Christian life comes a 
new conception of prayer. Christianity means the growing 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 537 

experience of a social relationship with God. But the very 
means by which this social relationship is established is 
prayer. The ^'answers" to prayer are not to be looked for 
in detached incidents, but rather in the total outcome in one's 
religious social experience. There is much need of readjust- 
ment of popular thinking on this point. When religion is 
conceived as a never-ceasing quest for the largest possible 
communion of the human spirit with the spiritual forces of the 
world in which we Hve, prayer will be seen to be the priTary 
and indispensable activity which establishes spiritual relation- 
ships. When considered in the light of this function in the 
total religious life, it assumes larger significance than men have 
been wont to recognize. 

It is evident to every careful observer that there is being 
developed in our day a new type of Christian experience. 
There is danger lest we fail to realize the full power of this 
type if we seek to force it to utter itself in the vocabulary of a 
former age. To appreciate and to give positive interpreta- 
tion to a religious experience which is essentially a quest for 
God, yielding a growing experience of communion rather 
than a dogmatic assertion o'f a ''finished" redemption, is a 
task worthy of the best efforts of theological students and 
preachers. 

Literature. — For the most part theologians still employ the con- 
ventional terms to expound the Christian life. But in popular and 
untechnical books there is coming into existence a body of religious 
literature of real power setting forth the characteristic modern attitude. 
The student may well acquaint himself with Herrmann's profoundly 
spiritual interpretation of the Christian life in The Christian's Communion 
with God (New York: Putnam, 1908). Other suggestive interpretations 
are King, Theology and the Social Consciousness (New York: Macmillan, 
1902) ; Jones, Social Law in the Spiritual World (Philadelphia: Winston, 
1904); Coe, The Spiritual Life (Chicago: Revell, 1900) and The Religion 
of a Mature Mind (Chicago: Revell, 1902); Hyde, God's Education of 
Man (Boston: Houghton MifHin Co., 1899); Faunce, What Does Chris- 
tianity Mean? (Chicago: Revell, 191 2); and Dickinson, The Christian 
Reconstruction of Modern Life (Rew York: Macmillan, 1913). 



538 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

The Christian hope. — In no realm are the changes of 
thinking more marked than in the portion of theology which 
deals with the future life. Where theologians used to speak 
to us in detail concerning ''last things," they now set forth in 
somewhat general terms the reasonable basis for optimistic 
confidence in the continuance of life beyond physical death. 

Reasons for a changed interpretation. — The reasons for 
this change of emphasis are obvious. Modern biology and 
psychology have compelled the recognition of the close inter- 
relation between our spiritual and our physical life. When the 
physical organism is in any way modified or ceases to function, 
the character of the spiritual life is affected. The belief in the 
resurrection of the body, which used to enable men to think 
of the life beyond in terms of the activities which we know here, 
has been very generally modified. Yet when we attempt to 
think of a life without the bodily functions to which we are 
accustomed, it is difficult to form a definite picture. More- 
over, the modern impossibility of reproducing all details 
of the hope of early Christianity leads to caution in the 
formulation of Christian belief. The early Christians looked 
for a speedy end of this worldly regime and the miraculous 
estabHshment of a Kingdom of God from which all evil-doers 
should be excluded. But nearly two thousand years have 
passed, and this hope is still unfulfilled. Shall we cling to it 
in spite of all the evidence ? Or shall we recognize that this 
particular form of hope is not in accord with what we know of 
God's dealings with men ? The New Testament eschatology, 
however, is so closely bound up with the New Testament belief 
in resurrection that we cannot discredit the one without its 
affecting the other. 

The real meaning of the primitive Christian eschatology. — 
Modern preaching often fails to do justice to the early behef 
in the Kingdom of God. We need to recall that for the 
primitive church it meant the estabHshment of a righteous 
social order on this earth. Originally it was expected that 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 539 

all followers of Jesus would live until he returned. It was 
only when death overtook some that the question of the 
resurrection was discussed. To the query as to whether those 
who had died were to lose their rights in the Kingdom the 
answer was given that the dead should have their bodies 
restored to them at the time of the great consummation, so 
that they might participate in the joys of the Kingdom. As 
time went on and the expected catastrophe did not take place, 
Christianity gradually developed the idea of heaven, with 
which we are famiHar, and abandoned the social hope of the 
early Christians. 

Modem developments. — Today we are ceasing to place 
so much emphasis on the mediaeval conception of heaven, 
but we are beginning to emphasize the social hope, which was 
so important in the thinking of early Christians. In the 
''social gospel" of today we are recovering an aspect of 
the primitive gospel which has been largely forgotten. Thus 
the lessened emphasis on details of the heavenly life is accom- 
panied by a great revival of the social hope. This positive 
aspect of the modern situation should be appreciated. ' The 
"religion of the Spirit" will lay much stress on the possible 
elimination of evil from our earthly life through the strength 
of Christian faith and activity. When we remember that the 
religion of the prophets of Israel was developed in relation 
to a social and political hope rather than in relation to the 
problem of personal immortality, we may see that there are 
as yet unrealized possibilities in this aspect of Christian 
thinking. 

The larger hope. — ^But death is so universal a fact that 
no one can escape the necessity of thinking concerning it. It 
is important here to recognize that negative dogmatism is 
scientifically as unjustified as is positive dogmatism. If it be 
true that the exigencies of modern scientific thinking make it 
difficult to afhrm the concrete details of the older resurrection 
faith, we are not therefore compelled to draw the worst possible 



540 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

conclusions from our inability to prove anything tangible. It 
is quite as reasonable to believe that death may lead to some- 
thing better than we hope for as it is to fear that it may lead 
to something worse. Christian faith has here to draw the 
legitimate inferences from its doctrine of divine providence. 
We may trust God for the sequel to death as we trust him 
for the present life. From this point of view the various 
theories of men concerning the future are symboHc of the 
trustworthy instincts of the soul. We have a right to con- 
struct the best possible picture of the future, recognizing that 
in so doing we are simply continuing the spiritual interpre- 
tations which find expression in other aspects of Christian 
faith. 

Literature. — Interest in the problem of immortality today is primarily 
psychological and philosophical. The history of religious thought on the 
subject is given in detail in Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immor- 
tality (New York : Scribner, 1896) . William Adams Brown has furnished 
a readable popular survey of the history of thinking on the subject in 
The Christian Hope (New York: Scribner, 19 12), which furnishes 
a full and excellent bibliography on the subject. The Ingersoll lectures 
delivered at Harvard reflect various aspects of thought in both ancient 
and modern times. Especially suggestive are James, Human Immor- 
tality (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1898); Osier, Science and 
Immortality (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1904); and Fiske, Life 
Everlasting (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1900). 

The Society for Psychical Research has for some years been attempt- 
ing to discover whether alleged spirit communications furnish tangible 
evidence of continued existence after death. The results are meager 
and unsatisfactory. Myers, Human Personality and Its Survival of 
Bodily Death (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1903), gives an 
optimistic interpretation, which should be balanced by a negatively 
critical study such as Tanner, Studies in Spiritism (New York: Appleton, 
19 10). 

The specifically religious interests are represented by many popular 
books, among which may be mentioned Fosdick, The Assurance of 
Immortality (New York: Macmillan, 1913); Gordon, The Witness to 
Immortality (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1893); and Crothers, The 
Endless Life (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1905). 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 541 
IV. THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIAN BELIEFS 

Because of his education and his personal experience the 
individual Christian is usually content to let the vindication 
of his beliefs be found in the practical satisfaction which 
these bring in his life. But whenever critical thinking is 
encountered either in the course of one's own wider study or 
in the utterances of men who doubt the adequacy of Chris- 
tian beliefs, it becomes necessary to examine more closely 
the grounds of our convictions. This critical justification of 
faith is the task of apologetics. 

The defense brought by the authority type of theology. — 
Where the task of theology is conceived to be that of 
reproducing the authorized doctrines, the primary apologetic 
task is to vindicate the authoritative character of the source 
from which doctrines are derived. The revelation to which 
appeal is made must be shown to be authentic; and this 
authenticity is in the last analysis to be established by an 
undoubted sign of its divine origin. Miracles, fulfilment of 
prophecy, and a supernatural inspiration of the biblical writers 
were the main attestations according to ancient and mediaeval 
writers. Protestant orthodoxy laid especial stress on the 
doctrine of inspiration. 

The survival of older apologetic interests. — If, however, 
the task of theology be defined -as we have urged in the 
preceding pages, the task of apologetics is changed. But 
the age-long emphasis on the fundamentals of the older apolo- 
getics leads one naturally to fix upon these older interests 
as if they were primary. It is taken for granted that we must 
continue to defend as fundamentals the historicity of miracles, 
the fulfilment of prophecy, and the idea of supernatural 
inspiration. 

But what is the relation of ^modern religious experience to 
these matters? Does our faith actually rest on miracles 
today ? Or are we attempting to defend miracles by appeal 
to something more primary? It is interesting to see how 



542 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

former arguments on this question are now completely 
reversed. Whereas men used to be told that the miracles of 
Jesus proved his divinity, we are now informed that we may 
beheve the miracles because of our prior belief in the extraordi- 
nary nature of Jesus. Whereas men used to feel that the mere 
presence of a statement in the Bible guaranteed its truth, 
today we hear such statements as, ''A thing is not true because 
it is in the Bible; it is in the Bible because it is true." If 
miracles have to be ''proved" to a modern mind, the argu- 
ment from miracles has lost its primary value. Instead, then, 
of taking the apologetic items of former theological treatises 
ready at hand, the student should learn to ask the ''previous 
question," What are the real foundations of modern faith? 
Having discovered these, we may then ask why we may con- 
tinue to regard them as reliable. 

The modem conception of apologetics. — ^Wider historical 
knowledge has shown that those supernatural aspects of 
religion which Christianity has emphasized in the past are 
not peculiar to Christianity. Other religions also have 
their miracles, their inspired literature, their men with 
occult powers of knowledge. It is not very difficult to 
show the critical difficulties in the way of accepting these 
things at face value in the case of other religions. But the 
very knowledge that this is so makes one more exacting in 
regard to the evidence for similar elements in Christian tradi- 
tion. The fact that comparisons can be made leads one to 
feel that the real significance of Christianity is to be found, 
not in these vulnerable matters, but rather in the spiritual 
content which men recognize to be of value for its own sake. 

But the moment one ceases to attempt to vindicate the 
"authority" of an entire system of theology the method of 
apologetics changes. One comes to see that the inductive 
method requires us first to ask*, What are the real difficulties 
which people feel today? We can then deal with these 
difficulties on their own merits. It is evident that from this 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 543 

point of view the task of apologetics cannot be distinguished 
sharply from that of constructive theology. We have defined 
the task of theology as the attempt to think over our religious 
inheritance in the light of present problems, so as to formulate 
for today and to transmit to the coming generation an expres- 
sion of faith vitally related to our actual life. Into this con- 
structive task apologetic questions inevitably enter. Still, 
there are some aspects of modern religious thinking which 
deserve special treatment. We may briefly call attention to 
some of the most urgent of these. 

I. THE SO-CALLED "CONFLICT BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION" 

We are today passing out of the period in which science 
and religion were felt to be hostile to each other. Still, there is 
much popular uneasiness on this point. It is well known, 
and usually frankly admitted by theologians, that modern 
astronomy, geology, biology, and critical history set forth 
conclusions which conflict with biblical statements. When 
one recalls the important place in the traditional theological 
system occupied by Adam, it can readily be seen that the 
modern doctrine of evolution causes consternation to one 
who thinks consistently in terms of orthodox doctrine. 
Again, science sets miracle aside, for the reason that miracle 
explains nothing so far as scientific control of events is con- 
cerned. In short, the tendency of science is to eliminate from 
our thinking the idea of supernatural interventions. In so 
far as one's religion is conceived in terms of supernaturalism 
science is continually invading the religious realm. 

The danger of an apologetic which seeks to refute science. 
— The first tendency when one's faith is attacked is to repudi- 
ate the arguments of the opponent. Apologetic writers often 
try to disprove the contentions of science, so as to retain the 
belief which was threatened. But nothing is so fatal to 
one's prestige as to engage ignorantly in debate with an 
expert. The student should recognize that in his own field 



544 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

a scientists statements are based on careful, critical investiga- 
tion. The only man who can successfully debate with a 
scientist is one who knows with equal accuracy the field 
in question. Many of the well-meant defenses of traditional 
belief against new scientific ideas have recoiled on theology 
with fatal consequences. Take, for example, the many 
attempts to '^ harmonize" Genesis and geology. It does not 
take much acumen to discover that often a harmonizer is 
willing to distort both the plain meaning of Genesis and the 
theories of geology in order to ''save the face" of theology. 
Such distortion is odious to every lover of truth; and those 
who have been guilty of it have created a deep prejudice in the 
minds of scientific men against theology. While many 
Christians may have been emotionally soothed by superficial 
rhetoric on these themes, yet the damage done has been 
great. It is scarcely too much to say that scientific men 
today frequently believe that a theologian cares more for 
superficial conformity and rhetorical adjustment than for 
the truth. 

Every theological student ought to know at first hand some 
branch of science. Fortunately our colleges are more and 
more insisting on an adequate acquaintance with the achieve- 
ments of science. Theologians in the past have done cruel 
wrong to these seekers after truth. Attempting to maintain 
the mediaeval superiority of theology over all branches of 
learning, in an age which no longer looks to theology for final 
information on scientific subjects, Christianity has put itself 
in a false light. Nothing is more needed today than a frank 
admission of our faults in the past and a determined purpose 
to be fair and truthful in spirit. In an age which owes so 
much to science a theology which depreciates science is 
playing a losing game. 

The need of cultivating the scientific spirit. — There is no 
better defense of any theory than to show that it rests on a full 
and accurate examination of the facts. It ought to be evi- 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 545 

dent to everyone that knowledge of facts is constantly 
improving as humanity advances. We today know many 
things concerning which men were ignorant two thousand 
years ago. Instead of assuming at the start that a doctrine 
which was formulated in the past is absolutely true and has 
only to be defended against ''attacks," we ought first to make 
sure of our facts. If this investigation results in the modifica- 
tion of the doctrine in question, it is far better to make the 
modification than to conjure up clever arguments which con- 
ceal the truth. If once we shall have come to the point of 
being willing to go wherever the facts lead, no matter what 
becomes of our doctrines, we shall occupy a position far 
stronger than that of the current popular ''defense." The- 
ology has so long been accustomed to rely on external authority 
that it is necessary to exercise particular care in order to meet 
modern questions in a way which will convince men accus- 
tomed to scientific exactness. 

The rights of religious faith. — When scientific research has 
done all within its power, there remains the realm in which 
exact knowledge is impossible. Here conjecture and hypothe- 
sis supplement the verified conclusions of science. Not only 
does intellectual curiosity impel one to imagine possible con- 
ditions in this larger world; practical considerations also 
demand some hypothesis as a basis of action. Thus all 
sciences have their philosophical theories on the basis of which 
practical attitudes are possible. The assumptions of the 
indestructibility of matter and of the uniformity of nature are 
hypotheses which serve to guide practical experiments and to 
establish confidence in the reliability of such experiments. 
The scientist "trusts" nature to behave in certain ways. 

In similar fashion the practical spiritual interests of men 
demand faith that the universe is of such a character as to 
justify those higher spiritual activities which find expression 
in religious and moral life. Strictly speaking, one cannot 
"prove" the existence of God. But neither can one disprove 



546 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

it. One may decline to pass beyond the limits of what science 
may say concerning the world. But if so, one should refrain 
from anti-theistic hypotheses as well as from theistic theories. 
As a matter of fact, the interests of life are too complex and too 
big to be satisfied without recourse to some kind of ''faith." 
The Christian has only to ask whether his particular extra- 
scientific philosophy is as respectable and as compatible with 
what we surely know as any other type of speculative thinking. 

Some necessary distinctions. — Much confusion is often 
caused by failure to understand just what the limits of criti- 
cism are. To challenge a belief is easy in any realm. One 
may challenge the doctrine of the bacterial origin of certain 
diseases or the doctrine that there is a real material world. 
But a challenge is of little significance unless it is followed 
by some explanation which is more adequate than the one 
which is questioned. The theologian is well aware of critical 
difficulties in the way of a complete demonstration of the 
truth of many of the doctrines of Christian faith. He should 
welcome any discussion which helps to an understanding of 
these difficulties. But he has also the right to demand that 
one who objects to his solution of the questions at issue shall 
have thought as carefully as he has himself and be ready to pro- 
pose an alternative to the theological doctrine which shall be as 
respectable ^intellectually from all points of view. Many 
so-called ''scientific" objections, when carefully analyzed, 
betray too superficial knowledge of all the problems involved 
to deserve serious question. Here one might well study the 
careful analysis given by Romanes, on the basis of what he 
calls impartial (as contrasted with prejudiced) agnosticism, 
in his Thoughts on Religion. He felt that his earlier objec- 
tions to religious behefs had been due to superficial considera- 
tions. 

Another important distinction which should be made is 
between the purpose of science and the purpose of religion. 
Science is concerned to interpret reality in terms of exact 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 547 

cause and effect, so as to be able to control the processes of 
nature mechanically. The more exactly mechanical its for- 
mulas are the more ''exact" is the science. Thus there is the 
constant pressure to include as much as possible under the 
laws of physical activity. A world completely mechanized 
would be a world completely explained, so far as science is 
concerned. Religion, on the other hand, is concerned to 
interpret the world so as to emphasize those aspects of reality 
which justify man in his desire to establish relations of trust 
and love and moral confidence between himself and the world- 
process. Spiritual meanings are of supreme importance for 
the theologian; they lie outside the realm of the scientist's 
particular purpose. Now, the scientist is likely to have 
only his technical aims in mind in his attacks on religion. 
He objects to religious formulations because they do not sig- 
nify anything for scientific purposes. But the obvious 
answer to this objection is that religion is using its doctrines, 
not for scientific, but for religious purposes. Theological 
statements, like literary or artistic creations, are to be evalu- 
ated by asking whether they promote the rightful interests 
of the spiritual life of man. The only requirement which 
science has a right to make is that these statements shall be 
such as not to compel a man to be untrue to the requirements 
of scientific honesty. In short, hypotheses and S3anbolic 
statements are entirely legitimate so long as they are com- 
patible with scientific veracity. They need not conform to 
the norms of technical science, for the simple reason that 
they are intended for another purpose. If it be granted that 
man rightly demands a spiritual interpretation of his environ- 
ment as well as knowledge of the technique of mechanical 
control, a theology which proceeds by the methods urged 
in the foregoing pages ought not to have great difficulty in 
coming to terms with a scientifically open-minded science. 

Literature. — ^An excellent survey of the "conflict" between religious 
doctrines and scientific discoveries is furnished by White, A History of 



548 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, 2 vols. (New York : 
Appleton, 1898). Suggestive treatments of the problem are Boutroux, 
Science et religion dans la philosophic contemporaine (Paris: Flammarion, 
1908; English translation by Nield, Science and Religion in Contempo- 
raneous Philosophy [London: Duckworth, 1909]) ; Ward, Naturalism and 
Agnosticism, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1899); Romanes, Thoughts 
on Religion, 2d ed. (Chicago: Open Court Pub. Co., 1895) ; Otto, Natural- 
istische und religiose Weltansicht (Ttibingen: Mohr, 1904; 2d ed., 1909; 
English translation by Thomson, Naturalism and Religion [New York: 
Putnam, 1907]); G. B. Foster, The Finality of the Christian Religion, 
chaps, iii-vi (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1906). 

2. THE ONTOLOGICAL PROBLEM 

Serious difEculty is caused for religious thinking by the 
fact that critical epistemology seems to make impossible 
the affirmation of ''reality" in the older sense of the term. 
The scientific spirit involves a radical modification of tra- 
ditional realism. The scientist today regards his statements 
as ''working hypotheses" rather than as realistic descriptions. 
He values them because of their practical efhciency in ena- 
bling him to deal with the world in which he lives. He may 
find symbolic representations actually more efficient than 
descriptive language. For example, mathematical formulas 
may be preferable to descriptive statements. The scientist 
has learned to combine an ontological agnosticism with a 
practically optimistic method of trusting in "hypotheses." 

The objective significance of a tenable hypothesis. — It is 
important for the student to recognize that a hypothesis is 
not merely a mental creation. A hypothesis is an instru- 
ment for exploring the reality of our environment. If it is a 
hypothesis which "works," it actually enables us to establish 
definite relations with our environment and to receive into 
our experience the increment which comes from such rela- 
tionship. The theory of gravitation is a "hypothesis," but it 
is a means of enabling us to deal definitely and consistently 
with the "real" world. In short, there is an ontological 
reference in any hypothesis which is found to be tenable on 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 549 

critical grounds. To be sure, we do not have the older sort 
of static and finished ontology; but neither is the content of 
a hypothesis as '^ subjective" a thing as it is often supposed to 
be by those who distrust the empirical spirit. 

The problem of religious certainty. — It must be admitted 
that this attitude is very different from that of traditional 
theology. The "certainties" derived from revelation have 
been sharply contrasted with the uncertainties of human 
thinking. The positive vigor of religious faith has been 
assumed to be indissolubly connected with reliance on an 
infallible declaration of God. In contrast to this position, 
the proposal to exercise a practical trust in "religious hy- 
potheses" seems to those who have been educated in the 
traditional way to be weak and unsatisfactory. Such hypoth- 
eses are frequently represented as mere human creations. 
Religious convictions, it is held, should embody eternal, 
unchangeable truth. 

The type of assurance compatible with the scientific 
spirit. — If it be realized that a "hypothesis" concerning God 
may be the most fruitful practical means of establishing real 
relationship between the life of man and that mysterious ulti- 
mate which we call " God," theology will be relieved of a bur- 
den which is fast becoming unendurable. There is no more 
fundamental need today than that of a way of formulating 
religious faith which shall allow men who cannot honestly start 
from the "absolute certainties " provided by the older theology 
to work their way into a vital religious life, building up their 
own ideas as they go along. We readily admit that imper- 
fect conceptions of God in the past have been stepping-stones 
to a richer and fuller religious life, with its better theo- 
logical conceptions. May not tentative theories held by men 
today be also a means of appreciating "objective" reality? 
As experience grows our hypotheses also develop. But at 
every point in the development we are actually establishing 
some sort of relationship with the universe in which we must 



550 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

live. In the place of the older kind of '^ assurance," which 
declared that God's absolute word had been proclaimed to us 
in final form, we must develop a type of assurance which looks 
confidently toward the establishment of truer dynamic rela- 
tionships with God through the practical experience of using 
the best conceptions we have, while striving always for better 
ones if these are to be found. It is the duty of theologians 
today to show the positive side of this experimental attitude. 
Its negative aspects as contrasted with the older type of 
^'assurance" have been so emphasized both by orthodox 
theologians, and more recently by Ritschlians, that apologetics 
has been placed in a difhcult position. What is worse, mul- 
titudes of modern men who cannot honestly assume the 
attitude of ''absolute" certainty supposedly demanded by 
Christianity have felt that they have no place in the modern 
church. 

If the method of appeal to an infallible revelation be 
abandoned, all doctrines must be related to human experience 
for their justification. Now, experience is unceasingly experi- 
menting — living, indeed — on hypotheses which have proved 
their efficacy in human life; but it is ever eager for better 
means of establishing vital relations to environment. This 
quest for larger contact with reality has its religious value. 
The religion of the inquiring mind has in the past been depre- 
ciated as compared with the religion of dogmatic certainty. 
The impression has been created that the attitude of ques- 
tioning is incompatible with a strong religious faith. A 
modern apologetic should make it clear that a ''reality" 
which is discovered in and through experience, and which 
although imperfectly defined is nevertheless actively function- 
ing in human life, is no less valuable than a "reahty " which is 
defined as existing prior to, and independent of, experiences. 
More and more shall we be compelled to recognize that a 
faith which is in harmony with the general methods of think- 
ing current today must appreciate the prophetic and vital 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 551 

significance of relative and imperfect formulations of the 
object of religious quest. We are slowly developing a con- 
ception of reality which makes possible the questionings 
essential to scientific inquiry along with an experienced 
confidence in the practical sufficiency of symbolic representa- 
tions of ultimate realities. 

Literature. — This problem requires a knowledge of critical episte- 
mology. Of especial suggestiveness are Baldwin, Thought and Things, or 
Genetic Logic (New York: Macmillan, 1906), and A Genetic Theory of 
Reality (New York: Putnam, 191 5); Royce, The World and the Indi- 
vidual (New York: Macmillan, 1901 and 1902); Ward, Naturalism and 
Agnosticism (New York: MacmiUan, 1899); James, Pragmatism (New 
York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1907); Perry, Present Philosophical 
Tendencies (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1912); Mackintosh, 
The Problem of Knowledge (New York: Macmillan, 1915); Hockmg, 
The Meaning of God in Human Experience, Part IV (New Haven: Yale 
University Press, 191 2). 

3. THE PROBLEM OF THE SUPERNATURAL 

It has been assumed in the past that any mere '^ natural" 
religion is totally inadequate because of the frailty of human 
nature and its liability to error. Christian doctrine has thus 
represented the fundamentals of our reHgion as having a 
superhuman source. The origins of man and of the world in 
which he lives have been referred to special activities of God. 
The means of salvation have been defined in terms of miracle. 
Christ has been valued primarily because of his non-human, 
divine origin. Regeneration , has been looked upon as a 
miraculous transformation rather than as a development of 
character. The means of grace, baptism, the Lord's Supper, 
the Bible, have been declared to be efiicacious because of 
their divine origin. Thus the validity of Christianity has 
seemed to rest on the proved miraculousness of its origin and 
nature. 

The modern discrediting of miracles. — One of the striking 
aspects of modern religious thought is the widespread departure 



552 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

from the strict supernaturalistic view. Formerly the fact of 
the presentation of miracles in the Bible was held to be a 
strong evidence of its truth. Today many of these miracles 
are seriously questioned and elaborate ''proofs" of their 
probability have to be devised. The doctrine of evolution has 
led us to think of the world in which we live and of the history 
of man in terms of a long and gradual development rather 
than as originating through a special divine act. Attention is 
being more and more directed to the human life of Jesus, 
and there is less and less insistence on the necessity of the 
virgin birth as an element in the value of Jesus for us. Bap- 
tism and the Lord's Supper in large areas of modern Protes- 
tantism have ceased to be regarded as miraculous channels of 
special grace, and are interpreted as ritualistic activities with 
profound psychological suggestiveness. In short, there is 
growing up a type of religious belief which does not need to 
afhrm miracles in the older sense of the term. 

Can we draw a line between the natural and the super- 
natural? — The presupposition underlying the defense of 
miracles is that there is a virtue in the so-called supernatural 
which is not to be found in the so-called natural. This 
presupposition needs to be critically examined. Let the 
student make out a list of the most valuable items in the 
Christianity which he knows and loves. Let him then inquire 
whether these are all located in the realm of the ''super- 
natural." He will perhaps be surprised to discover the large 
significance of the "natural" in his religious life. Again, 
let him make out a list of the defensible miracles, and let him 
ask how many of these actually affect his religious faith. 
Such a practical test would reveal the fact that religious 
values are not at all identical with distinctly supernatural 
interventions. There are many items treasured by faith 
which receive a "natural" explanation, and there are many 
recorded miracles concerning which faith is religiously indiffer- 
ent. Now, since the religious soul recognizes God's activity 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 553 

in all that is of religious significance, faith finds God in the 
so-called natural as well as in the so-called supernatural. To 
draw a distinct line between the two realms is impracticable. 

Emphasis on quality rather than origin. — If we are to be 
true to the demands of actual religious experience, we should 
give our primary attention to the identification of what is of 
value for our faith rather than to the attempt to vindicate non- 
natural origins. Instead of attempting to prove that the 
entire Bible has an origin different from that of any other 
literature, we ought rather to make sure of the value of biblical 
religion for actual religious life. Before deciding that a 
defense of a given account of a miraculous event should be 
undertaken one should first ask whether the event is of 
vital significance for faith today. It is poor strategy to pre- 
pare an elaborate defense of positions which are of no vital 
consequence. 

When once it is recognized that we do not need to draw 
any dividing line between the ''natural" and the ''super- 
natural" realm, and when it is further recognized that the 
question as to whether an event is miraculous or not is of 
secondary importance, since faith sees the activity of God in 
all that touches our spiritual welfare, it will no longer be felt 
necessary to validate Christianity primarily by proving its 
supernatural origin. We are already accustomed in Protes- 
tantism to the valuation of many aspects of our religion in 
terms of a protest against Catholic supernaturalism. We 
feel that religious faith is better if we deny that baptism super- 
naturally effects a change of character. We insist that the 
bread and wine of the Lord's Supper do not undergo any 
miraculous transformation. We are becoming accustomed 
to the use of the Bible as a book of religious experience rather 
than as a supernaturally produced literature. We are laying 
more stress on the inner life of Jesus and less on the circum- 
stances of his birth. Gradually our confidence is being shifted 
from the exceptional and inexplicable to the normal. It is 



554 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

necessary today to grant differences of opinion concerning 
many of the miracles of the Bible and concerning the possi- 
bility of a supernatural element in connection with some of the 
factors in Christian salvation. It is apologetically a stronger 
position to show that religious values are not necessarily de- 
pendent on a supernaturalistic philosophy than it is to at- 
tempt to assert supernaturalism all along the line. 

The real religious interest. — The crucial point in the discus- 
sion lies in the desire of the religious soul to affirm the activity 
of God in the world and in human experience. In so far as 
what is '^ natural" is viewed as godless it becomes essential to 
emphasize a ''supernatural." But if, as is the case in much 
modern thought, the religious uplift of man through faith's 
contact with the unseen is regarded as a natural and normal 
development of experience, religion may find abundant ground 
in the ''natural" world for affirming the presence of God. 
If the abundant rights of rehgious faith are vindicated in the 
"natural" world, the defense of the "supernatural" becomes 
superfluous. 

Literature. — The critical difficulties in the way of affirming a miracle 
if one has once come to doubt it were stated in classic form by Hume 
in 1748 in his famous essay Of Miracles. The philosophical and religious 
objections to miracles were forcibly urged by Spinoza in his Tractatus 
theologico-politicus (1670). As the empirical spirit of Hume has become 
more widespread, the cogency of his criticism is generally recognized, 
though at the same time his failure to do justice to religious interests is 
seen. 

Good popular treatments of the subject are: Wendland, Miracles 
and Christianity (New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 191 1; translated by 
H. R. Mackintosh from the German, Der Wunderglauhe im Christentum 
[Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1910]); Gordon, Religion and 
Miracle (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1909) ; Whiton, Miracles and the 
Supernatural (New York: Macmillan, 1903). 

The problem of miracles has recently received much attention by 
German scholars. Critical studies have been made by Herrmann, 
Ofenharung und Wunder (Giessen: Topelmann, 1908); Rade, Das 
religiose Wunder (Tubingen: Mohr, 1909); Hunziger, Das Wunder 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 555 

(Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer, 19 12); and Stange, Christentum und 
moderne Weltanschauung, Vol. II (Leipzig: Deichert, 1914). 

4. THE PROBLEM OF THE ABSOLUTENESS OF CHRISTIANITY 

It has been assumed by theologians in the past that Chris- 
tianity is a religion of absolute truth. It has thus been a part of 
the task of apologetics to prove the ''finality" of the Christian 
system. It has not been deemed sufficient to show that Chris- 
tianity has justified itself practically in history. One must 
attempt to show that Christianity can never be superseded. 

Can we demonstrate absoluteness? — To state whether a 
given ideal can or cannot be superseded would require some- 
thing more than the limited knowledge which men possess. 
Consequently the affirmation of the absoluteness of Chris- 
tianity is logically possible only as one appeals to superhuman 
evidence. Such an appeal has been made in two ways. The 
character of Christianity has been affirmed to be due to a 
superhuman revelation which, just because it came from 
God, was freed from the errors of human judgment, or 
the truths of Christianity have been identified with a tran- 
scendental philosophy of the absolute. It is necessary to 
examine these two methods of proof. 

The conception of revelation tested by historical fact. — ^The 
application of more exact historical criticism to the Bible has 
resulted in relativizing the contents of the Bible. It is a com- 
monplace of modern biblical interpretation that the concep- 
tions of the biblical writers are expressions of the historically 
conditioned thinking of devout men. As a matter of fact, 
we have to recognize the temporal and imperfect character of 
many of the aspects of biblical thinking. To assert the 
absoluteness of biblical theology would mean, if consistently 
carried out, the affirmation of the finality of such biblical 
ideas as those concerning demons or the place of the Jews 
in general history or eschatology. But if we admit the rela- 
tive character of these ideas, what is to guarantee the absolute 



556 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

character of other bibHcal ideas? Evidently the test em- 
ployed must be something other than the mere bibhcal char- 
acter of the idea. Even if present-day thinking sees no 
reason to doubt or to modify these other ideas, we should 
remember that for centuries Christian thinking saw no reason 
to question the accuracy of biblical demonology. Can we 
declare what future generations will afhrm concerning doc- 
trines which seem to us self-evidently true ? 

The appeal to a metaphysical absolute. — Is it not possible 
to strip off all those aspects of historical Christian beliefs which 
are subject to the vicissitudes of changing experience and to 
discover an unchanging ''substance" which may be pro- 
nounced absolute ? This method of apologetic has been much 
in vogue since Hegelianism aroused interest in the ideal of an 
absolute idealistic metaphysics. If we may conceive of his- 
torical movements as due to the dynamic activity of the infinite 
in the finite, we may consider the finite in metaphysical rather 
than in experimental terms, and thus interpret it in terms of 
absoluteness. 

But when one attempts thus to get back of the historical 
and finite aspects of experience to a supposed ''absolute," 
one is compelled to pass from the concrete to the abstract. 
Is religious faith satisfied with such abstractions? To 
take a single illustration: HegeKan apologetics admits that 
the vicissitudes of a single human being, such as Jesus, 
belong in the realm of history, and as such cannot be treated 
as absolute. It is the idea of incarnation which is absolute. 
It is the principle of Christ rather than the person of Christ 
which forms the eternal content of Christianity. Does not this 
method of absolutizing a concrete figure of history deprive us 
of precious elements in our religious faith? Are not our 
affections and our devotion actually stirred by the concreteness 
of the life and teachings of Jesus rather than by the abstract 
grandeur of the "principles" lying back of his historical 
life? 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 557 

Moreover, logically this method of seeking an ''absolute" 
defeats the apologetic aim which it proposes to satisfy. 
For the persistent apologist may discern universal ''prin- 
ciples" underlying non-Christian as well as Christian history. 
Thus the content of the absolute in the last analysis must be 
such as to be applicable to all history. In other words, 
instead of demonstrating the absoluteness of Christianity as a 
historical religion, one would demonstrate the absoluteness 
of certain universal religious principles found in all religions. 
One could then only say that in historical Christianity these 
universal principles are more nearly reahzed than in other 
religions. But this would be making the Christianity which 
we know only relatively better than other religions; and it 
would be confessing that a religion of universal ideas is 
higher than historical Christianity. There are signs that this 
appeal to metaphysics which was so common fifty years 
ago is now being recognized to be unsatisfactory for the reasons 
indicated above. 

Do we want to pronounce final any historical expression of 
Christianity? — It would be well for the student, before enga- 
ging in the attempt to prove the absoluteness of Christianity, 
to ask whether he would like to have the Christianity of the 
present day declared final. Are we willing to rest content 
with the beliefs and the practices which now exist ? On the 
contrary, are we not eagerly striving to correct some of the 
aspects of our Christianity which seem to us to be in need 
of improvement ? But if it is not the Christianity which we 
know which is to be pronounced absolute, what form is to be 
selected ? Has not every period in the history of Christianity 
seen a dissatisfaction with some aspects of religious belief and 
practice and a striving for reforms and advances ? Surely 
there are aspects of New Testament Christianity which have 
been outgrown, and which no one would wish to reinstate. 
To canonize for all time disputes over circumcision or argu- 
ments over the parousia is not to be thought of. Indeed, 



558 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

was not New Testament faith conscious of defects in existing 
faith and practice just as we today are conscious of defects 
in our own Christianity ? Has not the attempt to fix exactly 
the content of Christianity always failed ? Can Catholicism 
make absolute its ideals? Can any type of Protestantism 
become universal ? Even if we succeed in affirming an abso- 
luteness, is it not the absoluteness of an as yet unrealized 
ideal ? And can we be sure that the actual course of Chris- 
tianity will conform to this absolute ideal in the future if it 
has not done so in the course of the centuries lying behind us ? 
Christianity as a developing historical religion. — The 
assumption that we may affirm finality rests on the conception 
of Christianity as a finished system of beliefs delivered 
authoritatively in perfect form. But with the conception 
of evolution we have come to see that there is no such static 
form of Christianity. Christianity is always in the making. 
Instead of attempting to demonstrate the finality of its con- 
tent, we ought rather to ask whether the present stage of its 
evolution is such as to give faith in its future. If it can be 
shown that Christianity today is alive to the pressing reli- 
gious and moral questions of human hfe, and that it is fur- 
nishing insight and power for the solutions of those questions, 
we may well speak enthusiastically of its future. But if we 
should discover that, instead of yearning forward toward 
the spiritual conflicts of the coming age, it is trying to sur- 
round itself with an armor of defensive dogma, we may well 
be concerned. In a civilization that is changing so rapidly 
as our own absolutes are out of place. A Christianity which 
can point to its adaptability, which can look hopefully forward 
to such changes as are necessary in order that it may play a 
leading part in the solution of our spiritual problems, is more 
defensible than is a Christianity standing rigidly for the finality 
of this or that doctrine or practice. 

Literature. — The problem is critically analyzed and discussed with 
reference to modern conditions by G. B. Foster, The Finality of the Chris- 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 559 

Han Religion, chaps, i and ii (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 
1906). The desire to affirm the absoluteness of Christianity is forcibly 
expressed by Hunziger, Probleme und Aufgaben der gegenwdrtigen syste- 
matische Theologie (Leipzig: Boehme, 1909); and H. R. Mackintosh, 
"Does the History of Religions Yield a Dogmatic Theology?" American 
Journal of Theology, XIII (October, 1909), 505-19. Of great importance 
is Troeltsch, Die Ahsolutheit des Christentums und die Religions geschichte 
(Tubingen: Mohr, 1901; 2d ed., 1912). See also the article "Absolut- 
heit des Christentums" in the encyclopedia Religion in Geschichte und 
Gegenwart, I, cols.- 125 fi. 



5. CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS 

A rational defense of Christianity is not complete with- 
out an inquiry into the claims of other religions. It is true 
that this comparative study is not a matter of very vital 
concern for most adherents of Christianity in Christian lands. 
It .is in the mission field that this aspect of apologetics is 
most essential. Still, the student should be at least reason- 
ably intelligent concerning other religions in order that he 
may enrich his religious thinking by a knowledge of other 
ways of meeting the problems of faith. 

The modern attempt to appreciate foreign faiths. — For- 
merly theologians were too prone to adopt a method of defense 
which consisted in depicting the failures and defects of other 
religions while expounding Christianity in its ideal aspects. 
Such a comparison seemed easily to prove the superiority of 
Christianity. In recent years, however, the honest attempt 
has been made to give a sympathetic and fair account of other 
faiths. This attitude is partly due to the better acquaintance 
with the thinking of peoples in missionary lands, as mis- 
sionaries have had opportunity to enter more fully into the 
life of those to whom they minister. It is partly due to the 
historical spirit which undertakes to tell the truth about a 
religion, no matter what becomes of apologetic considerations. 
The question which arises in connection with this historical 
appreciation is whether missionary efforts are - justified. 



56o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

When we take into account the fact that every reHgion arises 
to meet the actual social needs of those among whom it 
develops, may we not assume that such natural development 
represents a survival of the fittest among possible religious 
beliefs ? 

The fallacy of this position is easily seen if we recognize 
that no religion, not even the Christianity which we know, is 
entirely adequate to the needs of men. Any religion is 
constantly in need of criticism and of development in order 
to reach its full measure of value. A comparison of the ideals 
of Christianity with those of other religions in these regards 
will be extremely valuable to the student, leading him not only 
to a new appreciation of the priceless value of the great utter- 
ances of the prophets and of Jesus, but also awakening in him 
the vision of the possibilities of spiritual development if these 
ideals are allowed to come into their rights. 

The comparative point of view will also make it clear 
that Christianity in mission fields will have a peculiar de- 
velopment due to the stimulus of peculiar conditions of each 
field. If, in the history of our faith, Greek Catholic ortho- 
doxy, Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and 
other forms of Christian faith have developed in response to 
the historical conditions which they met, ought we not to ex- 
pect that the future will bring into existence types of Chris- 
tianity bearing the impress of the special cultures of the 
Orient? If this question be answered in the affirmative, 
it is no longer a question of proving that Western Christianity 
is superior in all respects to the oriental faiths. The real 
question is whether Christianity is more capable than any 
other religion of introducing into the religious traditions of 
the oriental peoples a spiritual worship embracing a devout 
humanitarian culture. The answer to this question is not to 
be found in creedal statements. It is rather to be sought 
in the actual capacity of Christianity to adapt itself to foreign 
conditions while maintaining that continuity of spirit and 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 561 

that idealism which have made it worthy of the love and 
loyalty of Christians in all ages of its Western history. 

Literature. — Statements as to the superiority of Christianity are of 
scientific value only as they rest on real knowledge. Such knowledge is 
difficult to attain. The following books represent suggestive attempts 
at historical comparative study : Religious Systems of the World, by various 
authors, 2d ed. (London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1892); 'KMentn, National 
Religions and Universal Religions (New York: Scribner, 1882); Ellin- 
wood, Oriental Religions and Christianity (New York: Scribner, 1892); 
Bousset, Das Wesen der Religion (Tubingen: Mohr, 1906; English trans- 
lation by Low, What Is Religion? [New York: Putnam, 1907]); G. F. 
Moore, History of Religions (New York: Scribner, 19 12) (a second 
volume to follow); Menzies, History of Religion (New York: Scribner, 
1895). 

V. CHRISTIAN ETHICS 

The Christian is a person who not only relates his life to 
the spiritual realities of his environment for the sake of his 
own inner satisfaction, but who also necessarily lives in the 
world and in society with certain standards of conduct. He 
believes that certain ways of behavior are imperative, and 
.he seeks to order his own life and to organize society in such 
a way as to promote the kind of life in which he believes. 
Christian ethics undertakes to set forth the principles which 
the Christian beheves ought to guide human conduct. Prob- 
ably this ethical aspect of Christianity is most important in the 
eyes of most men. Theological opinions are very generally 
regarded as matter of personal option. But moral convic- 
tions are esteemed to be of primary importance, and an indi- 
vidual or a church is generally judged on the basis of ethics 
rather than on the basis of theological beliefs. A study of 
the ethical content of Christianity is thus imperative if one 
is to understand its real nature. 

The historical evolution of Christian ethics. — Just as it has 
been common to think of Christian doctrine as a thing authori- 
tatively fixed once for all, persisting unchanged through 
the ages, so it has been customary to speak of Christian 



562 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

ethics as a divinely authorized system of conduct. The 
first task of the student should be to reaHze the significance 
of historical development in the realm of Christian conduct. 
In a vague way the fact of historical change is realized by 
everyone. Paul's precepts concerning the behavior of women 
in public places are generally recognized to have been the 
reflection of local and temporal exigencies. Protestants 
regard some Catholic practices, like fasting, obedience to the 
ecclesiastical authorities, etc., as unwarranted developments 
in Christian history. But there is not yet an adequate 
understanding of the fact that Christian morality has had a 
historical development. Until this is fully realized Chris- 
tians will be more eager to conserve the customs of the past 
than aggressively to attack the evils of the present and the 
future. 

The ethical ideal of the primitive Christians. — The lofty 
ideals of the New Testament Christians will always stand as 
an inspiration to later ages. But it is important for the stu- 
dent to realize the historical limitations of those ideals as well 
as to appreciate their moral grandeur. The early Christians 
were looking for a speedy ending of this '' present evil age" 
by the miraculous establishment of the Kingdom of God. 
Their affections were therefore set upon a future which was 
not to be brought about by their own moral efforts. To be a 
Christian meant to be personally devoted to Christ, so as to 
win his approval in the great day of judgment. But it did 
not mean that Christians should undertake to transform the 
existing social order. This was expected to pass away in the 
great consummation. The New Testament thus lacks that 
interest in social evolution which is an essential of modern 
ethical thinking. 

This disregard for the present social order and the vivid 
expectation of the speedy coming of the heavenly Kingdom 
meant that the standards of conduct must be found in that 
''other" world rather than in this. Consequently men were 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 563 

concerned to ask what God requires of those who are to be 
citizens of the coming Kingdom rather than to ask what 
ought to be done to make this world a better place in which 
to live. It is true that the interpretation of the character of 
God given by Jesus and set forth by his disciples afhrms that 
God is fundamentally concerned with humanitarian welfare. 
Thus in actual content the ethics of the New Testament 
demands the exercise of unselfish love toward one's fellow- 
men. But these same fellow-men are valued, not as citizens 
of this world, but as beings capable of entering into the 
future Kingdom. Thus the moraHty of the New Testament 
moves on a very simple plane of personal relationships, and 
does not involve any serious entanglement with the social and 
industrial problems of existing civilization. This dominant 
position of the eschatological hope makes it impossible to 
transfer literally to our own age the precepts of the New Testa- 
ment. To do so would mean to ignore the moral problems 
due to modern social and industrial conditions. It is of espe- 
cial importance that the student should learn to read the 
moral ideals of the New Testament in the light of the histor- 
ical situation in order to see the inadequacy of a conception of 
Christian ethics which would ascertain duty for today simply 
by asking what the New Testament teaches. 

Literature. — Most expositions of the ethics of the New Testament 
ignore or minimize the significance of the historical situation and attempt 
to read the precepts of Jesus and of the apostles as sufficient for 
all time and for all historical situations. Among the most readable 
works of this type are Peabody, Jesus Christ and the Christian Character 
(New York: Macmillan, 1905); Jesus Christ and the Social Question 
(New York: Macmillan, 1900); Clarke, The Ideal of Jesus (New York: 
Scribner, 191 1); King, The Ethics of Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 
1 9 10), with a good bibliography. 

Attempts to set the teachings of the New Testament writers in 
relation to the historical conditions of thinking may be found in Mathews, 
The Messianic Hope in the New Testament, Part IV (Chicago: The 
University of Chicago Press, 1905); Herrmann, Die sittliche Weisungen 
Jesu; ihr Missbrauch und ihr richtiger Brauch (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck 



564 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

und Ruprecht, 1904; English translation in pp. 145-225 of The Social 
Gospel (New York: Putnam, 1907); E. F. Scott, The Beginnings of the 
Church, Lecture VI (New York: Scribner, 1914); Troeltsch, Die 
Soziallehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen, pp. 1-83 (Tubingen: 
Mohr, 191 2). 

The subordination of ethical to religious interests. — 

This attitude on the part of the early church meant that 
conduct must be judged in relation to religious interests. 
To be ready for the coming Kingdom was more important than 
to attain any particular status in this world. The inevitable 
consequence of this point of view was to make ethics sub- 
ordinate to theology. Indeed, it is only in modern times that 
Christian ethics as a separate realm of study has been differ- 
entiated from theology as a whole. 

The development of the Catholic conception of Christian 
ethics. — The theological emphasis which placed the future 
world above the present, and which led men first to ask what 
was demanded in order to be eligible to the blessings of that 
future world, made inevitable the development of a system 
of authoritative control of human conduct. If ethics be 
defined as obedience to the will of God, the all-important ques- 
tion is to determine where that divine will is made known. So 
long as men disagree here human error is vitiating conclusions. 
The possibility of mistake must be eliminated. Catholicism 
has undertaken to furnish an authoritative pronouncement of 
the divine will. The church, as the divinely appointed agent 
of God, has the right to guide the inquiries of men and to 
decide what conclusions are in accord with God's revealed 
will. All merely ''natural" reasoning must be subjected to 
the censorship of ''supernatural" authority. All activities 
of men are to be controlled by the church. The moral quahty 
of an action is ultimately determined by its conformity or lack 
of conformity to the authority of the church. Thus church- 
controlled education is morally superior to secular education 
because it inculcates a willingness to conform to authority. 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 565 

An unbaptized man is morally bad because he has not sub- 
mitted himself to the church. Freedom of research, freedom 
in politics, freedom of religious thinking, are all dangerous 
because these attitudes represent a fundamental failure to 
apply the standard of authority. 

Obviously such a conception of ethics makes difficult, if 
not impossible, any wholesome criticism. Men trained 
under this system are taught to ask the question, "What is 
officially authorized?" rather than to inquire what an honest 
study of the facts yields. Catholic ethics is thus necessarily 
static and conventional. It seeks to meet moral questions 
by interpreting a predetermined program rather than by 
analysis of actual conditions. Logically it would compel a 
return to mediaeval culture, when it was taken for granted 
that the church should be supreme in authority over the 
thoughts and actions of men. 

The student ought to make himself acquainted with 
Cathohc ethical ideals, for every pastor and social worker 
finds himself confronted with the powerful influence of the 
CathoHc church. In its fundamental distrust of merely 
"natural" or "secular" forces Catholicism is intent on 
creating a kind of goodness which shall be ecclesiastically 
identified and approved rather than a kind of goodness which 
shall lose itself in the social development of humanity as such. 
Ultimately it is the "other" world of theological exposition 
rather than the present world of historical development which 
is to determine moral issues. It is true that by its elaborate 
casuistry CathoHcism attempts to meet the particular prob- 
lems of changing life. But such casuistry is pecuharly 
liable to be misunderstood. In form it too often seems to be a 
clever attempt to nulHfy the obvious meaning of authorita- 
tive pronouncements in order to give relief in some particular 
instance. If the highest good is defined as conformity to an 
authoritative standard, any nonconformity means moral 
laxity, however it be explained. It is only when a moral 



566 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

imperative can be found precisely in nonconformity itself that 
ethical integrity is possible in the act of departing from pre- 
scribed duties. For such an ethical interpretation Catholicism 
makes no logical place. 

Literature. — Standard works on Catholic ethics are Werner, System 
der christlichen Ethik (Regensburg: Verlagsanstalt, 1850; 2d ed., 1888); 
Liguori, Theologia moralis (first published in 1756 and repeatedly 
republished); Cathrein, Philosophia moralis (Freiburg: Herder, 1895); 
Mausbach, Die kafholische Moral, ihre Methoden, Grundsdtzen und 
Aufgaben (Cologne: Bachem, 1901); Rickaby, Moral Philosophy (Lon- 
don: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1888). The discussion of moral prob- 
lems in the Catholic Encyclopedia will give authoritative statements. An 
admirably clear and earnest statement of Catholic principles in relation 
to many modern problems is found in The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope 
Ze^ X/// (New York: Benziger Bros., 1903). 

The moral dangers of casuistry are set forth by Pascal, Lettres 
provinciates (a good edition, Paris: Hachette, 1886). A scathing criti- 
cism of the Catholic position is given by Herrmann, Romischkatholische 
und evangelische Sittlichkeit (Marburg: Elwert, 1900; English translation 
in Faith and Morals [New York: Putnam, 1904]). 

The ethics of Protestantism. — From the ethical point 
of view the fundamental distinction between Protestantism 
and Catholicism lies in the elimination of ecclesiastical 
authority by the former. This leaves the individual free from 
institutional domination. Protestantism, therefore, has at- 
tempted to find moral motives and sanctions in the Christian 
experience of the individual rather than in the pronouncements 
of the church. The abandonment of the confessional is a 
mark of this emancipation of the individual. Moral activity 
is represented as the consequence of being saved by the grace 
of God. The Christian, filled with gratitude for God's love 
toward him, voluntarily devotes his life to the fulfilment of 
the will of God. One should be familiar with the vital 
optimism of this conception of morality as it is expressed 
in Luther's sermons and in his treatise Concerning Christian 
Liberty. Such an ethical ideal opened the way for the 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 567 

recognition of moral values in secular life. It enabled 
Luther to declare that the housemaid in the kitchen is engaged 
in as sacred a task as is the clergyman. It inspired Luther's 
famous Address to the German Nobility, in which those whose 
vocation was in the realm of poHtical activity were summoned 
to an opportunity for Christian ministry. Protestantism thus 
is much better adapted than is Catholicism to appreciate and 
to inspire non-ecclesiastical moral endeavors, and it is in 
Protestant lands that secular culture has been permitted to 
develop without the necessity of submitting to ecclesiastical 
control. 

But Protestantism, like CathoHcism, retained the funda- 
mental conception of a morahty directed by prescriptions from 
another world. The Reformation occurred before men had 
come to realize the possibilities of empirical inquiry. The 
deductive method was still dominant in all branches of 
learning. Ethics also was regarded as a deductive science. 
Even philosophical ethics was attempting to set forth the 
principles furnished a priori in the divinely established ''law 
of nature." Protestantism supplemented this law of nature 
by the revealed law found in Scripture. Thus the essen- 
tial content of ethics was regarded as "given" from above. 
In principle the Protestant Christian, like the Catholic, is 
taught to study a ready-made code rather than to analyze 
the actual conditions of life. The fact that every individual 
has the right of private interpretation gives an opportunity for 
flexibility not found in CathoKcism; and in recent years 
Protestant ethics has been very active in seeking to under- 
stand the problems of our modern life, though it still generally 
professes to derive its principles from an authoritative source 
in Scripture. 

The defect of the traditional Protestant conception of 
ethics. — We have come to realize the fact that human life is a 
historical growth, and that this growth involves changes in 
human culture. The moral code of the savage, with his simple 



568 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

life and his few interests, is totally inadequate to the complex 
problems of modern industrial and social life. The prin- 
ciples which secured justice in an age when every locality was 
virtually self-supporting and self -sufficient are hopelessly 
antiquated in an age when we are all dependent on transporta- 
tion of goods and an intricate machinery of exchange of 
values. Moral principles, whether of the savage or of the 
modern man, must be derived from an appreciation of the 
actual moral needs engendered by conditions of life. Thus 
we are today more and more adopting the method of study- 
ing the facts of life as the means of determining what ought to 
be done. 

Now, Protestantism has continued to employ the deductive 
method. It has been assumed generally that a study of the 
Bible would adequately prepare one to live a moral life. 
But the Bible presents us with comparatively primitive 
conditions of industrial and social life. The principle of 
neighborliness is set forth as sufficient. And in small com- 
munities where men know one another neighborliness is a 
reasonably efficient way in which to secure right relations of 
men to one another. But in the complex conditions of a 
great industrial civilization a man may earnestly desire to be 
neighborly, and yet find himself helplessly confronting moral 
evils. The ethical conception of Protestantism, emphasizing 
as it does the appeal to an alien source of moral authority, 
fails to train men in that inductive study of conditions which 
is indispensable to the evolution of a morality suited to our 
modern life. Protestantism, like Catholicism, is still primarily 
concerned with conventional, ecclesiastically approved virtues. 
We are just awakening to the fact that moral leadership has 
been fast passing out of the hands of the church, simply 
because, in an age of rapid and profound change in habits 
of hfe, the church has behaved as if a code of ethics wrought 
out two thousand years ago were entirely adequate to the 
demands of the present. 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 569 

Literature. — The fresh inspiration engendered by the original 
Protestant ideal is best seen in Luther's great treatises, Concerning 
Christian Liberty and To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation 
respecting the Reformation of the Christian Estate, both found in English 
in Luther's Primary Works, translated by Wace and Buchheim (London: 
Hodder & Stoughton, 1896). The ethical portions of Calvin's Institutes 
should also be read. 

Protestant ethical treatises have generally attempted to make such 
use of the deductive method as should bring either Scripture, or the 
"principles" of Scripture, or the expression of Christian "experience" 
into relation with the moral problems of our day. Among the best are 
Herrmann, Ethik (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1901; 5th ed., 1913); Haering, 
Das christliche Leben auf Grund des christlichen Glaubens (Calw: 
Verlagsverein, 1902; 2d ed., 1906; English translation by Hill, The 
Ethics of the Christian Life [New York: Putnam, 1909]); Smyth, Chris- 
tian Ethics (New York: Scribner, 1892); Murray, Handbook of Christian 
Ethics (Edinburgh: Clark, 1908). Alexander, Christianity and Ethics 
(New York: Scribner, 1914), is an interesting and instructive example of 
the struggle to do justice, by means of a deductive conception, to a situa- 
tion which demands the use of the inductive method. It has an extensive 
bibliography. 

In recent years the attempt has been made to use the teachings of 
Jesus deductively to interpret modern moral duties. Typical works of 
this kind were cited on p. 563. 

The need for a new conception of Christian ethics. — Since 
the same factors which occasion changes in theological think- 
ing are operative in the realm of ethics as well, a reconstruction 
of ethical thinking is involved in theological reconstruction. 
The repudiation of the Catholic conception of the church 
involved the radical revision of the idea of Christian moraHty 
which we find in Luther's treatment of the subject. But, 
as has been indicated in the section dealing with modern 
theology, we have today abandoned the ways of thinking 
which characterized early Protestantism. For modern men 
God is to be discovered in the relations of the aspiring soul 
to immediate environment. He is immanent in the move- 
ments of history. The dictates of the Cathohc church are 
no more authoritative than the summons of actual moral 



570 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

need as we meet it. We cannot define Christian ethics in 
terms of a church-controlled society. Neither can we regard 
Christian duty as identical with biblical precepts. We 
readily disregard Paul's instructions concerning the public 
activities of women, because we hold judgments due to our 
modern appreciation of woman's place in social life. We are 
learning more and more to organize our Christian activities 
in relation to the actual moral demands of Hfe rather than in 
response to a pattern taken from an isolated portion of history. 
The most vigorous Christian activities of our day are building 
up their moral principles through actual experience. The 
Young Men's Christian Association, the modern Sunday 
school, the institutional church, the methods of niodern evan- 
gelism, the fight against intemperance and against vice — 
these movements are all employing an empirical method of 
determining morality which should be extended to the entire 
field of Christian ethics. They are not looking for explicit 
direction from an alien source ; they are rather concerned to 
understand and to utilize the moral forces latent in life today. 
God's will is found in the actual appeal of the facts rather than 
in a prescribed code. Just as modern religious thinking is 
learning to draw its inspiration from the world in which we 
live, so modern Christian ethics must learn to determine its 
content by a careful study of the problems which confront us 
and an understanding of the resources with which we may 
attain moral results. Christian ethics should be defined as 
the determination of the duties of a modern Christian hving 
in the modern world. To define it in terms of an ethical 
system belonging to another age is to fail to make Christianity 
completely ethical. 

Moral inefficiency due to confusion of ideals. — Until 
one definitely asks himself whether his moral duty is to con- 
form to a ''given" code or to meet the needs of the situation 
one has not reached a foundation for the consistent building of 
the moral structure. Is it our Christian duty to organize 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 571 

church activities and to engage in missionary enterprise with 
the purpose of creating as many churches as possible which 
shall reproduce the ''scriptural" polity? Or is it our Chris- 
tian duty to ask what kind of a church and how many churches 
are demanded by the religious needs of each community ? Our 
criminally overchurched small towns, with their sectarian 
rivalries and their pitiful struggles for bare existence, are 
monuments of moral delinquency due to a failure to base 
duty on a study of the facts. The same moral failure is 
sure to follow any enterprise which is guided merely by an 
ethics of conformity. Our Christian activities today are in too 
many instances following the scribes rather than Jesus. Our 
treatises on Christian conduct are too generally using the 
scribal methods of exegesis of scriptural texts rather than the 
method employed by Jesus, by Paul, and by all great moral 
prophets, of determining duty by spiritual insight into the 
actual conditions confronting them. The method of the 
scribes is always cumbersome and clumsy. So long as we are 
pursuing the devious way of attempting to solve modern 
moral problems by a study of precepts addressed to other 
times and other occasions we shall reap the harvest of moral 
confusion. Nothing is more imperatively demanded of the 
modern minister than an understanding of the inadequacy 
of the deductive method which we have inherited in 
our Christian ethics. Our religious instruction and our 
moral training must be brought into line with that method of 
ascertaining duty which is in accord both with the practice 
of Jesus and with the science of our day. 

Literature. — ^This situation has been portrayed in some detail by 
G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the Changing Theology (New York: 
Macmillan, 1913). See also Troeltsch, Die Soziallehren der christlichen 
Kirchen und Gruppen (Tubingen: Mohr, 19 12); King, The Moral and 
Religious Challenge of Our Times (New York: Macmillan, 191 2); 
Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (New York: Mac- 
millan, 1907) ; Dickinson, The Christian Reconstruction of Modern Life 
(New York: Macmillan, 1913). 



572 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION ^ 

The study of psychology and of sociology. — In order to feel 
at home in the use of this empirical method of studying ethi- 
cal problems, every minister should avail himself of the aid 
furnished by modern psychology and sociology. In these 
branches of human investigation he finds men first asking ques- 
tions concerning the facts of human life, and then deriving their 
conclusions from the facts. For example, where the older 
dogmatic theology began with a doctrine of innate sinfulness, 
modern investigations ascertain as far as possible the concrete 
causes of behavior. It has been shown, for example, that 
minor physical defects, such as adenoids or poor eyesight 
or dull hearing, lead children to unwholesome mental atti- 
tudes and to ''wrong" conduct. Manifestly, to allow these 
physical hindrances to receive no attention is to neglect 
our plain moral duty. To discover the specific reasons why 
people ''go wrong" is a better preparation for dealing with 
their moral problems than is a detailed metaphysical or 
theological study of the "nature" of sin. To ascertain in 
detail just what it is in the experience of men that constitutes 
the motive to do "right" is better than to indulge in rhetori- 
cally vague appeals to "conscience." To know the physical 
conditions of a wholesome spiritual Kfe is an indispensable 
part of ethics. 

Here it should be remarked that most philosophical 
treatises on ethics are too metaphysical and abstract to furnish 
the needed aid. Philosophy as well as theology has been 
under the domination of the deductive method. The effort 
has been to establish some a priori principle from which to 
derive the content of ethics. From Kant's "categorical 
imperative" to the utihtarian "greatest good of the greatest 
number" the ethical systems of the past century have 
attempted to unify and simplify ethics by subsuming- all 
particular kinds of conduct under some one ultimate norm. 
Inspiring as is the conception of some great all-inclusive ideal, 
it nevertheless does not furnish one with the sort of insight 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS ] 573 

which is developed by patient inquiry into the facts. The 
student should master some treatise which effectively employs 
the empirical method. 

Literature. — An excellent popular introduction to this way of study- 
ing moral problems is given in King, Rational Living (New York: Mac- 
millan, 1905). More thoroughgoing treatments are Wundt, Facts of the 
Moral Life (English translation by Gulliver and Titchener [London: 
Swan Sonnenschein, 1902]) ; Dewey and Tufts, Ethics (New York: Henry 
Holt & Co., 1908); Hobhouse, Morals in Evolution, 2 vols. (New York: 
Henry Holt & Co., 1906); Westermarck, Origin and Development of the 
Moral Ideas, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1908). 

The spirit of Christian ethics. — Having come to under- 
stand that moral problems must be studied inductively, 
the student is freed from the blighting influence of the ideal 
of mere conformity. Ethics is a creative activity, not a 
mere reproduction and application of predetermined prin- 
ciples. The real power of Christian ethics is revealed only as 
moral activity is seen to be the way in which one joyously 
and heroically unites his activities with those of the loving 
God whose presence one has been able to realize in one's inner 
Hfe. The creative identification of one's will with the pur- 
pose of God, and the conviction that the will of God is most 
truly found in those attitudes and ministrations of love which 
Jesus exemplified and which his truest followers have always 
put foremost — these are the essentials of Christian ethics. 
One who beHeves in the possibihty of this co-operation with 
the divine purposes is stimulated to an optimistic idealism 
with surprising possibiHties. One is not daunted by seemingly 
insuperable difficulties. One feels the divine call and knows 
that the divine strength is available in every heroic undertak- 
ing. While one prays that the Kingdom of God may come, one 
also rejoices in the opportunity to have a share in bringing in 
the better day. Let one recall the courage with which devout 
Christians have undertaken appalling tasks. Think of the 
magnitude of the missionary enterprise, of the untiring 



574 ' GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

evangelism which never despairs of even the desperately 
sinful, of the insistence of Christians, in the face of social dis- 
tinctions, that all men have equal rights to spiritual oppor- 
tunities, of the fight against intemperance, impurity, and 
demoralizing luxury. Christianity enables those who bear 
heavy burdens to feel the aid of a divine yoke-fellow; it brings 
to the man who faces tasks too large for his strength the 
consciousness of God's slowly moving but wonderful plans ; it 
lifts one's thinking and one's aspirations above the petty 
level of utilitarian plans and gives to Hfe at its best a grandeur 
and a significance which suggest divine possibilities. Men 
who are conscious of longing for the coming of the Kingdom of 
God will pray and strive to live in the spirit of the Kingdom, 
and will thus experience the presence and power of God in 
their lives. It is the creative power of such religiously 
inspired morahty that distinguished the early Christians from 
the mere conformists of their day, and that made them the 
founders of a growing religion of power. The New Testament, 
rightly understood, is the ''charter of the religion of the 
Spirit," and should stimulate modern Christians to a forward- 
looking creative spirit of active discipleship to Jesus in relation 
to the problems of our day. 

Literature. — Most expositions of the ethical practice of Jesus are 
concerned to find in his ethical precepts an authoritative code which may, 
be employed deductively. Suggestive studies of the spiritual freedom of 
Jesus and of an ethics in the spirit of Jesus are found in Herrmann, Die 
sittliche Weisungen Jesu; ihr Missbrauch und ihr richtiger Branch (Got- 
tingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1904; English translation in 
The Social Gospel, [New York: Putnam, 1907]); Wernle, Die Anfdnge 
unserer Religion (Tubingen: Mohr, 1901; 2d ed., 1904; English trans- 
lation by Bienemann, The Beginnings of Christianity [New York: Put- 
nam, 1903]); King, The Ethics of Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 1910), 
with a good bibliography. 

The development of Christian character. — The most 
important and significant moral task of Christianity is the 
creation of a moral purpose leading men to transcend the 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 5 75 

convenient utilitarian standards which excuse easy-going 
conduct, and to face the question of a right relationship to 
God, from whom the inner life of man cannot be concealed. 
In Christian experience one learns the joy and strength 
which comes from fellowship with Jesus in the identification 
of self with the holy purpose of the loving God. It is difficult 
to overestimate the moral significance of this experience of 
communion with the living God. It makes possible self- 
sacrifice for the sake of the goods of the Kingdom of God. 
It brings into Hfe the reinforcement of a spiritual friend- 
ship with God. It inspires men to dare to hope for large 
things and to attempt seemingly hopeless tasks. We are 
constantly aware of moral opportunities which must be 
neglected because the spiritual life of men is too poor to 
undertake the necessary toil and sacrifice. The most impor- 
tant task of Christian ethics is to set forth the reality and 
the moral power of such an experience of God through dis- 
cipleship to Jesus. The technique of secular investigation 
may be used to ascertain our moral problems. But the 
spiritual dynamic for high moral undertakings almost inevi- 
tably is derived from Christian lives. 

The reality of this moral power is best seen in those 
who have been sublimely conscious of the ethical dynamic 
found in their experience. What gave to Jesus his unwaver- 
ing moral courage ? How does Paul seek to give moral 
strength to his own life and to the^ activities of those to 
whom he wrote ? Read in Augustine's Confessions the 
repeated emphasis on the divine source of his own moral 
triumphs. Let St. Francis of Assisi, Luther, John Wesley, 
and Tolstoy testify concerning the source of their moral 
strength. In this religious inspiration of moral endeavor 
Christianity makes its indispensable contribution to ethics. 
To fail to understand this is to fail to touch the heart of 
Christian ethics. Back of all discussions of particular moral 
problems should lie the appreciation of the inner resources 



576 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

of a Christian, who looks upon his tasks as contributions to be 
made to the accompHshment of the divine will on earth, and 
as activities in which profound communion with the righteous 
God is attained. Christian ethics is primarily concerned with 
the Christian attitude toward life as the practical outgrowth 
of the experience of Christian faith. 

Christianity and social ethics. — ^While the interpretation 
of moral character in relation to the Christian experience 
belongs naturally in the department of theology, the analysis 
of social problems must be undertaken by one who is famihar 
with the social sciences. This necessary division of labor is 
not as widely recognized as it should be. We are still under 
the influence of the mediaeval conception of the authority 
and abihty of the church to dictate political and social con- 
ditions. It is of the utmost importance that the student 
should come to think of social institutions as natural develop- 
ments. In every race and in every condition of human life 
there is some kind of family life, some form of group govern- 
ment, some current way of educating each new generation, 
some socially approved methods of conducting industrial life. 
To speak of the ''Christian" family, for example, as if Chris- 
tianity were responsible for creating family Hfe means to 
emphasize precisely such teclinical regulations as are promi- 
nent in Catholicism and to fail to take due account of the 
light which historical and social science may throw on the 
problems in this realm. The political welfare of the modern 
world involves the refusal to allow the church to dictate in the 
realm of government. Our modern governments are secular 
and "natural" rather than ''Christian." 

This means that in the field of social problems Christianity 
must employ the same method of determining what is desirable 
that is used by secular agencies. If the result of an open- 
minded inquiry shows that the highest good demands a 
reversal of previous doctrines, Christian ethics should be fore- 
most in declaring the moral duty of a change. For example. 



SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 577 

Christianity is rapidly reversing the judgment of former 
generations concerning the vocations of women. It is doing 
this, not because of any better understanding of bibhcal pre- 
cepts, not because of any technical claim to a '' Christian" 
solution of the problems due to the emancipation of women, 
but because Christian people, recognizing the facts of our 
social development, desire to approve what is manifestly good. 
The contribution of Christian ethics in this realm must be 
largely that of keen sympathy for human welfare developed 
by the Christian faith, with its affirmation of the holy purpose 
of God to estabHsh his Kingdom, and its insistence on Chris- 
tian love toward men as the only defensible attitude in the 
sight of God. From Christianity will therefore come a 
powerful impulse toward generous justice in social relations 
and toward subjecting the material forces of the world to the 
promotion of human spiritual welfare. But the precise ways 
in which justice and spirituality are to be secured must be 
determined by experiment and investigation. The social 
order is to be ''Christianized," not in the sense that every 
aspect of human life shall be technically related to the church, 
but rather in the sense that men who direct society shall pos- 
sess the spirit of service and of religious aspiration which find 
their clearest expression and inspiration in the Christian ideal 
oflife. 

Note. — ^This aspect of Christian ethics is treated in detail in chap, xi 
of this volume. 



X. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

By THEODORE GERALD SOARES 

Professor of Homiletics and Religious Education and Head of the Department 

of Practical Theology, University of Chicago 



ANALYSIS 

Introduction: The Scope of Practical Theology . . . . 581-582 

I. Homiletics. — Definition and scope. — The modern conception 
of the sermon. — ^The place of the Bible in modem preaching. — 
Doctrinal preaching. — Ethical preaching. — Evangelistic preaching. — 

The form of the modem sermon. — ^The new homiletics . . 582-594 

II. Church Polity. — Definition and scope. — ^The historic place 
of church polity. — ^The modem view of church polity. — ^The 
economic value of church polity — Denominational organizations. — 

The trend toward efficiency 594*599 

III. Church Administration. — Definition and scope. — Church 
types. — Specialism in the ministry. — Church architecture. — ^The 
organization of churches. — Interdenominational relations. — The 

church and the community 599-610 

IV. Pastoral Care. — Definition. — ^The cure of souls. — The 
pastoral office in the modern world 610-614 

V. Liturgies. — Definition. — ^The psychology of liturgies. — Pre- 
vailing liturgical forms. — Hymnology . 614-625 

VI. Missions. — Definition and scope. — Fields of missionary 
activity. — Forms of missionary organization. — Principles and prob- 
lems of foreign missions 625-640 

VII. Religious Education. — Definition and scope. — ^The history 
of rehgious education. — Data of religious education. — ^Theories of 
religious education. — Materials of religious education. — Methods of 
religious education. — Special problems 640-663 

VIII. Psychology of Religion. — The relation of the psychology of 
religion to practical theology. — ^The history of the science. — Definition 
and scope. — Methods. — Problems of the psychology of religion. — 
Conclusion . 663-676 



X. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

INTRODUCTION 

What is the scope of practical theology? — Practical the- 
ology is the science which studies the activities that result 
from the institutionalizing of religion, specifically of Chris- 
tianity. Christianity is not an institution but a way of life, a 
faith. This faith becomes institutional in the activity of 
preaching, whence the science of homiletics; in the organized 
ministry to personal religious needs, whence the science of 
pastoral care; in an organized community, the church, with 
a definite constitution, whence the science of ecclesiastical 
polity; in the organized church with an elaborate system of 
practical activities, whence the science of church administra- 
tion; in a technique of worship for the development of reli- 
gious feeling, whence the science of liturgies; in a system of 
educational development, whence the science of religious edu- 
cation; and in all these, interests extended beyond the borders 
of the immediate Christian community, whence the science of 
missions. 

The word ''practical" as applied to this body of studies 
is fitting enough; the word ''theology" is, of course, entirely 
inappropriate, but comes down traditionally from the use 
of the word to cover the whole system of studies connected 
with religion. It is the sense, indeed, in which it is used in the 
title of this volume. No one has yet succeeded in finding a 
better term to cover this comprehensive field. 

Literature. — There are many older treatises, especially in German, 
dealing with the whole subject of practical theology. An elaborate 
work, available in English translation, is Van Oosterzee, Practical Theol- 
ogy (New York: Scribner, 1878). It has four divisions, representing 
the traditional treatment of the subject: homiletics, liturgies, catechetics, 
poimenics. A modern and very satisfactory treatment from the German 

581 



582 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

point of view is E, Chr. Achelis, Lehrhuc^ der praktischen Theologie (Leipzig : 
Hinrichs, 191 1). There is no modern book in English which includes all 
the subjects in this branch of theology. Gladden, The Christian Pastor 
and the Working Church (New York: Scribner, 1906), is an admirable 
treatment of the practical phases of ministerial activity other than 
preaching. Oswald Dykes, The Christian Minister and His Duties 
(Edinburgh: Clark, 1908), treats of (i) ''The Modern Minister," 
(2) "As Leader in Worship," (3) ''As Preacher," (4) "As Pastor." 
Within the brief compass of the Yale Lectures, Charles E. Jefferson 
has discussed the whole work of the minister in a practical way in The 
Building of the Church (New York: Macmillan, 19 10). 

I. HOMILETICS 
I. DEFINITION AND SCOPE 

Homiletics is the formulation of the laws of effective pulpit 
discourse. It is a science, while preaching is an art. The two 
cannot be divorced. Homiletics does not impose its rules upon 
the preacher, but the effective preacher furnishes the data for 
the homiletician, whose business it is to observe the principles 
that actually obtain in successful preaching. The popular 
preacher who is fond of declaring that he never studied 
homiletics and that he breaks all the rules of the schools is a 
valuable piece of laboratory material. He is like the poet who 
sings metrically without understanding prosody, like the 
artist who paints effectively without studying anatomy 
and design, like the singer who charms us although he has 
not learned the niceties of technique. The probability is that 
he has some glaring faults which could be removed by 
the comparative study of other effective preachers. It is 
the humble task of homiletics, not to tell the master of assem- 
blies how to do his work, but to note the elements of effective- 
ness in different masters with a view to determining what 
constitutes the power of the pulpit over the hearts of men. 

The study evidently involves a knowledge of theology, of 
exegesis, of literary and historical criticism, of the history 
of the pulpit, of the movements of modern thought, and of 
general and social psychology. 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 583 

I 2. THE MODERN CONCEPTION OF THE SERMON 

Change from the idea of derivation of doctrine from 
Scripture. — ^The conception of the sermon depends upon the 
conception of rehgion. When the dominant idea was that of 
a plan of salvation authoritatively contained in the Bible and 
to be found implicitly or explicitly in every part of the Bible, 
then the business of the pulpit was to expound a text of Scrip- 
ture with reference to its bearing upon some element of 
redemptive doctrine. • The procedure of the sermon was there- 
fore determined by its function. First of all the exact mean- 
ing of the text must be set forth, then the doctrine to be 
derived from the text must be stated and defended, then the 
practical application of the doctrine must be made. But when 
religion is freed from intellectualism and becomes a matter 
of attitude, motive, experience, faith in a God not of the 
dead but of the living, the sermon makes a different appeal. 
It finds its authority in experience, in conscience, in the eternal 
yea, which is man's affirmation of the truth which finds him. 
The sermons of Phillips Brooks should be read for this quality. 

The trend away from apologetic preaching. — The modern 
sermon, therefore, is not apologetic. The -preacher does not 
think of himself as set for the defense of the faith but for the 
stimulation of faith. The aim of the sermon is to secure, not 
the agreement of the hearer with the views of the preacher, 
but an honest consideration, unbiased by prejudice and selfish- 
ness, of the religious problem involved in the discourse. For 
example, the modern sermon is not concerned to explain and 
defend a certain theory of biblical inspiration, which is after 
all a piece of dialectics, but rather to make the Scriptures a 
motive power in human Hfe. The one might result in an 
acceptance of the infallibility of the Bible, the other would 
lead to a recognition of its availability. 

Preaching from experience. — ''The true preacher can be 
known by this, that he deals out to the people his hfe — hfe 
passed through the fire of thought." The last phrase is 



584 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

important, and expresses that which distinguishes the sermon 
from exhortation. The preacher is a man of rehgious experi- 
ence who has drunk deep of the wells of religious inspiration; 
he knows the modern world in which he lives ; he talks to the 
people persuasively of those religious and moral certitudes 
which he knows will illumine the personal and social prob- 
lems of their lives. 

Literature. — The writer may refer to his essay, "The Need of Power 
in American Preaching," in University of Chicago Sermons (Chicago: 
The University of Chicago Press, 1915). 

3. THE PLACE OF THE BIBLE IN MODERN PREACHING 

The historical study of the Bible. — The modern view of the 
Bible as presented in the chapters of this book dealing with 
the study of the Old and New Testaments involves a change 
in its pulpit use. It can no longer be regarded as a storehouse 
of texts. It must be used as a literature, the product of 
definite social situations, and must be used in accordance with 
the canons of literary quotation. Regarding any biblical 
statement we must always ask two questions: What did the 
writer mean ? and What was the situation which made such 
meaning significant ? Then we may consider its contribution 
to our own needs. The wise minister will therefore be regu- 
larly engaged in some phase of Bible-study, which he will 
pursue scientifically with the aid of the best literature that 
he can secure. 

The Bible as a literature of power. — As soon as one ceases 
to think of the Bible as a repository of redemptive facts and 
appreciates its significance as a revelation of spiritual experi- 
ence, its value for the sermon is transformed. We look now, 
not for a text from which to deduce a theme, but for a con- 
tact with the human heart in its need or in its power. Here 
is the whole gamut of religious experience from the ecstasy 
of rapt fellowship with God to the cry of skepticism and 
despair, from the sober consideration of prudent principles 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 585 

of conduct to the splendid self-sacrifice of heroic devotion. 
And here is the experience of Jesus in whom by faith we see 
God. On the basis of such an appreciation of the biblical 
literature the minister prepares his sermon. He does not 
have to hunt for a text. His biblical study is constantly fur- 
nishing him with great suggestions. Of course he keeps these 
recorded as they occur, for the best thoughts have wings and 
must be caught as they fly. 

The enlarged opportunity of expository preaching. — 
The superficial acceptance of the new view of the Bible has 
led some preachers to a diminished use of it. But the his- 
torical approach gives opportunity for a more vital and more 
interesting expository preaching. The wonderful Hfe of that 
oriental past, with its essential humanness and its many points 
of contact with our own day, affords admirable opportunity 
for the illustration of moral attitudes toward life. In recent 
years there have been some notable exhibitions of the finest 
kind of exposition in the pulpit. Witness the work of George 
Adam Smith and C. R. Brown and the interest of the ''Short 
Course Series." The cultivation of the social imagination 
by the presentation of the way in which religious men met 
the problems of other days is excellent education for the 
modern man. 

The place of the text. — Early Christian preaching was 
entirely expository. The text was a considerable unit of 
Scripture. But the development of doctrinal preaching 
led to the selection of the single verse or phrase from which 
the all-important doctrine was to be deduced. Thus the 
sermon came to have its authority from its derivation from 
the Bible. If the preacher desired to preach upon a theme 
which was not treated in the Bible he had to find a text which 
by some homiletic ingenuity he could accommodate to his 
purpose. The modem pulpit is less rigid in its devotion to 
the text. Most ministers who desire to speak upon a subject 
which is not treated in the Scripture are honest enough not to 



586 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

pretend that it is treated there. The omission of the text on 
such occasions is a sign of respect for the Bible. It may be 
hoped that this freedom will do away with the foolishness of 
accommodated texts. 

4. DOCTRINAL PREACHING 

Doctrine and experience. — Doctrine in rehgion is suffering 
the usual fate of the deposed autocrat with ''none so poor to 
do him reverence.'' In the determination to be freed from 
creeds that were imposed from without men have declared 
that they will have none of them. But that would be intel- 
lectual anarchy. The only way to escape from doctrine is to 
give up thinking, for doctrine is nothing but formulated 
experience. All men have their doctrines — economic, social, 
poHtical, legal, medical, pedagogical. As soon as we say that 
we believe in a minimum wage for women we have laid down 
a doctrine. The objection to the creed is that it formu- 
lates doctrine once and for all, as if human experience were 
complete. Not only is human experience changing with 
changing conditions, but the contribution which the past 
furnishes to the experience of today is itself modified by our 
new interpretations of the past. What men need, therefore, 
is doctrine that will formulate the meaning of Hfe as the 
thinking of the past and the deepest religious insight of the 
present enable us to understand it. 

Christian doctrine and modern thought. — Faith and science 
apprehend truth differently but not independently. Each 
of them contributes to experience. Faith which does not 
take account of the facts of Hfe is a will-o'-the-wisp and its 
doctrines are foolishness. The minister must therefore be 
a scholar. His knowledge of human history and Hterature, of 
the physical and social sciences, of philosophy and psychology, 
will give him the intellectual equipment that will enable him to 
distinguish between the things that we can know and the things 
that we may believe. Guarded thus from intellectual pre- 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 587 

sumption, faith goes forth upon its daring course, and the 
preacher confidently but humbly tells the people what he 
believes about God, Christ, Providence, regeneration, prayer, 
spiritual communion, human worth and destiny, and the 
other supreme themes of human interest. The minister 
must guard himself most carefully at this point. He is the one 
speaker who may proceed without interruption and close 
without rejoinder. Let him cultivate the art of self-criticism. 
Let him be sure that he distinguishes between what he knows 
and what he believes. Then he may speak with freedom 
and with power. 

Practical character of the doctrinal sermon. — The preacher 
does not very much impart information ; he communicates the 
teachings of religious experience. Of course these are founded 
upon knowledge, and one's religious convictions must con- 
stantly be brought to the test of the severest intellectual 
criticism. But the preacher is not a theological lecturer. As 
a teacher in classes and conferences he seeks clear thinking. 
As a preacher he is not so much concerned with correct think- 
ing as with religious attitude. His purpose is not that his 
hearers' conception of the person of Christ shall be the same 
as his own, but that the spiritual lordship of Jesus shall be sig- 
nificant to them. He is not seeking an agreement upon a theory 
of prayer, but a common appreciation of the value of prayer. 
He is trying to make truth plain, but his chief purpose is to 
make it vital. He can generally test his success in this en- 
deavor by estimating the practical effect of the sermon upon 
himself. He preaches best to others who preaches first of all 
to himself. 

5. ETmCAL PREACHING 

The new ethical emphasis. — The object of doctrinal preach- 
ing not only goes beyond intellectual comprehension to an 
experience of the doctrine but generally farther still to some 
activity which is the result of the experience. The habit of 
mind of our age connects religion with duty. Those who 



588 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

desire to connect religion with creed feel themselves to be 
opposing the trend of the times, albeit they may deplore the 
condition. But even such always preach that faith without 
works is dead. The essentially practical character of the 
Bible has been rediscovered and Christianity is more and 
more preached today as a "Way" of life. 

The new social emphasis. — The latest response of the pul- 
pit is to the awakened social consciousness of our time. The 
ethics of the pulpit has been individualistic. To be sure, in 
temperance work, in poHtical and missionary utterances, 
preachers have often struck the. social note, as they did a 
generation ago in the conflict with slavery. But the larger 
social problems involved in the complicated economic and 
industrial conditions of today have rather dismayed the min- 
ister. Some have rushed in and made themselves ridiculous. 
Most preachers have decided that social reform was none of 
their business. A few great voices have really spoken with 
prophetic power. The modern ministry is trying to find itself 
in this new, difficult situation. There are three elements in 
the congregation: those whose ethical outlook is still entirely 
individuahstic and who can only connect religion with personal 
duty; those whose controlling social passion demands a social 
gospel; and the great mass who are just awakening to a sense 
of social responsibiHty and who find unexpected vitality in a 
preaching that strikes the note of faith in the salvation of 
human soci-ety. Rauschenbusch has done this most effectively 
in his two books— which are really sermons, though not homi- 
letic in form — Christianity and the Social Crisis (New York: 
Macmillan, 1907) and Christianizing the Social Order (New 
York: Macmillan, 191 2). 

Religion and morality in modem preaching. — The lead- 
ing preachers of today recognize the danger that the larger 
ethical and social interest may become a substitute for reH- 
gion, and that the gospel may thus become a program instead 
of a revelation. They are therefore seeking the social dynamic 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 589 

in a reaffirmation of the great reKgious certitudes. Thus 
preachers are inspired by the recognition of the unity of the 
rehgious and social passion in the Hebrew prophets. They 
are putting new emphasis on the idea of the Kingdom of God 
as at once a reKgious and a social concept. They are 
reinterpreting /'the Coming Age" of the New Testament in 
terms of the modern world. This may be seen in the preach- 
ing of Clifford, Horton, Ingram, Coffin, and Gordon. 

6. EVANGELISTIC PREACmNG 

The evangelist the least responsive to the modern spirit. — 

EvangeHstic preaching is that form of pulpit appeal which is 
designed to induce persons who are not controlled by religious 
motives to desire and decide to become so. The problem then 
is the awakening of the desire and its stimulation to the point 
of decision. To what motive shall the immediate appeal be 
made? Manifestly the strong primal motives of fear and 
self-regard form the easiest avenues of approach. His- 
torically the hell and heaven motives have been splendidly 
efficient. And the opportunity of giving adhesion to a plan 
of salvation has afforded the necessary initial act which has 
launched the penitent upon a new current of experience. 
That notable results of ethical achievement and spiritual 
regeneration are obtainable by this process the history of 
evangelicalism abundantly attests. But, on the other hand, 
the danger of a dependence upon a magical salvation pro- 
vided and not achieved, concerned with the future Hfe and 
not with the present, has been all too pitifully evident. But 
our modem perplexity is of another kind. The eternal truths 
underlying the ideas of heaven and hell and underlying the 
conception of substitutionary atonement are profoundly real 
to the thoughtful mind, but superficially these ideas are not 
acceptable to modern men. The preaching of the fire of hell 
may obscure rather than vivify the fact of retribution. The 
commercial presentation of the atonement may not help 



590 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

men to appreciate the passion of God. The reinterpretation 
of these appeals to fundamental motives is the need of today, 
but the popular evangeHst still pursues the easier method. To 
be sure, the majority of men do not live altogether in the 
modern world, and they may still respond to the old appeals. 
But the condition is fraught with peril. 

Some significant trends.^ — There are not wanting evi- 
dences of better things. Some of our most flamboyant 
evangelism connects itself definitely with social righteousness, 
e.g., '' cleaning up the town." EvangeKstic campaigns some- 
times eliminate the saloons. The evangelism of the Men 
and Religion Forward Movement was largely free from the 
crass theologizing of the past and struck a definite social note. 
The great Sunday-school world is getting away from the idea 
of evangelizing children and is seeking their spiritual awaken- 
ing and culture. Wise ministers without any campaigns are 
presenting worthy motives for the religious Hfe, and men and 
women are responding. And most significant of all the great 
Student Movement throughout the world has given up the old 
appeal entirely and is presenting Christianity as Jesus' Way, 
to be followed in humble and joyous fellowship with God. 
Beecher and Bushnell did that in their day. Dnmamond did 
it. Dawson, Jefferson, Ingram, Mott, are so preaching today. 

The problem of content. — We need a vital evangelistic 
message, and we shall get it by making all preaching evangehs- 
tic. The great social motive must become supreme and the 
pulpit must summon men to come with penitent hearts and 
clean hands because such are needed in the great crusade. 
After all it is but a modernizing of the splendid appeal, 
'' Repent because the Kingdom of God is coming near." 

7. THE FORM or THE MODERN SERMON 

The modification of the traditional form. — The traditional 
form of text, proposition, proof, appHcation, belongs to the 
conception of the sermon as a derivation of doctrine from the 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 591 

Bible and the application of it to life. With the changed 
conception there follows change in form. There need be 
no text. The text may be a great spiritual utterance with a 
literary rather than a logical relation to the theme of the 
sermon. There may be no proposition to be defended, and so 
the logical homiletic steps of proof — ^first, secondly, thirdly — 
may be unnecessary. And the whole sermon may be applica- 
tion. It is not surprising, therefore, that one finds much 
greater variety in modem preaching than would have been 
possible in a former day. There is a tendency to approxi- 
mate the ordinary forms of public speech. It is a reproach to 
say that a man has a pulpit tone or manner. He does not 
wish to be called a sermonizer. He finds his inspiration, not in 
the scholastic preachers, but in the prophets of righteousness. 
He speaks as man to man in the way of genuine eloquence. 
Phillips Brooks is the most conspicuous example of this. 

The continuance of traditional forms. — And yet the 
sermon has still a form of its own and is likely to retain it. 
The Bible is the only book for the pulpit. The sermon still 
begins with some great word from that treasure-house of 
spiritual experience. And it is still vital with Scripture 
reference and illustration. The sermon is not quite like other 
speech. We listen to lectures from men who are capable of 
giving us information or of entertaining us; we Ksten to 
speeches from advocates of a cause; but only in the sermon 
do we let a man open his heart to us and summon us to right- 
eousness and faith. A certain hereditary character will 
therefore always give form to the sermon. In the hands of the 
skilled preacher this will not be obtrusive; with the less able 
the conventional form will naturally be more evident. Van 
Dyke is an especially good example of a preacher who uses 
largely the conventional form, yet in such a way that his ser- 
mon seems genuine speech. Spurgeon, with his wonderful 
spontaneity, does not read well, because of his stilted homiletic 
form. 



592 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

8. THE NEW HOMILETICS 

Declining emphasis of old distinctions. — It is evident that 
the task of homiletics is a new one. The division of sermons 
into textual, topical, narrative, special, is no longer significant. 
Indeed, few preachers have a clear understanding of what was 
involved in the distinction between topical and textual. 
Practically, a sermon either starts from a text which stirs the 
preacher's imagination and gives him a theme which he devel- 
ops, or it starts from some other germinal thought for which 
he may seek an appropriate text at any time in the prepara- 
tion of the sermon. There is no vital difference between the 
two. If the divisions of the sermon should be derived from 
the text, that is quite an incidental matter. 

Expository preaching has still a certain distinctness. It 
involves interesting problems of historical interpretation, 
social imagination, and rhetorical imity. More work ought 
to be done in the training of good expository preachers. 

The message of the preacher. — Formerly exegetics and 
theology furnished a man his message, while homiletics gave 
him his method of presentation. But if the message is to come 
from a preacher's experience, the most fundamental homiletic 
problem is not one of manner but of matter. The most fre- 
quent failure of the pulpit has been, not in that a man has 
spoken badly, but in that he has had nothing to say. It is the 
duty of homiletics to study the content of the messages that 
are stirring the souls of men. 

The place of formal homiletics.— The ministry is par 
excellence the speaking profession. Lawyers and politicians 
speak a great deal, but, except on important occasions, do 
not deliver carefully prepared discourses. There is Httle 
attention to form in the argument addressed to a court or in 
much of parhamentary debating. But the necessity which is 
upon the preacher to deliver regularly two discourses every 
week upon the same general theme, within the limited space of 
about thirty minutes, and with a certain emotional quahty, 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 593 

constitutes a demand for a severe study of form. Thus the 
ordinary training in rhetoric and elocution must be extended 
to a careful study of the methods of religious discourse. The 
preacher must learn the principles of the oral style of the 
pulpit, which is at once dignified, earnest, and vivacious. 

The psychology of preaching. — ^After the acquisition 
of correct habits of speech, the problem of effective preaching 
is fundamentally one of psychology. The interaction of a 
religious leader and the hearers of his speech takes us to the 
psychology of mood, apperception, emotion, suggestibility, 
the psychology of the social consciousness, and, in the case 
of more intense reHgious appeal, to the psychology of the 
crowd. 

Literature. — Good books for the preacher are James, Talks to Teachers 
on Psychology (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1908); Mark, The 
Pedagogics of Preaching (Chicago: Revell, 1911); Scott, The Psychology 
of Public Speaking (Chicago: Privately published, 1906). 

More formal works are: A. Vinet, Homiletics, American ed. by 
Skinner (New York: Ivison & Phinney, 1855), the most significant 
among the earlier treatises presenting the art of sacred rhetoric ; *John A. 
Broadus, A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons (New 
York: Armstrong, 1870, 25th ed., 1900), which is a very stimulating 
treatment by a master of pulpit eloquence; Austin Phelps, The Theory 
of Preaching (New York: Scribner, 1881), perhaps the most elaborate 
discussion of the older type of sermon. 

On practical homiletics read T. H. Pattison, The Making of the 
Sermon (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1898), which deals 
with the various classes of sermons as resulting from the treatment of the 
text and with the various parts of the sermon; A. S. Hoyt, The Work 
of Preaching (New York: Macmillan, 1905), a good treatment of the 
essential elements of preaching; Vital Elements of Preaching (New York : 
Macmillan, 19 14), a treatment of the psychology of preaching without 
technical analysis; David R. Breed, Preparing to Preach (New York: 
George H. Doran & Co., 191 1), which is very suggestive as regards the 
psychology of preaching. 

The Yale Lectures on Preaching for the most part are not formal 
treatises. They deal with special phases of pulpit ministry. The best 
are Henry Ward Beecher, Yale Lectures on Preaching (New York: 



594 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1872, 1873, 1874), a very suggestive treatment; 
*Phillips Brooks, Lectures on Preaching (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 
1877), which are worthy of perusal every year; N. S. Burton, In Pulpit 
and Parish (Boston: Congregational Pub. Co., 1884), which presents 
the great ideals of ministry; Ian Maclaren (John Watson), The 
Cure of Souls (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1896), which gives 
eminently human suggestions from a literary master; W. J. Tucker, 
The Making and the Unmaking of the Preacher (Boston: Houghton 
Mifflin Co., 1898), a discussion of the conditions of modern preaching; 
George Adam Smith, Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the Old 
Testament (New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1899), a presentation of 
the homiletic values of the new Old Testament; Charles R. Brown, The 
Social Message of the Modern Pulpit (New York: Scribner, 1906), an 
essay in expository preaching; *W. H. P. Faunce, The Educational Ideal 
in the Ministry (New York: Macmillan, 1908), which treats of the 
preacher as a teacher; Charles Sylvester Home, The Romance of Preach- 
ing (New York: Revell, 19 14), an exposition of the principles of preach- 
ing from a study of a few great masters at critical periods in Christian 
history. 

On the history and criticism of preaching see: J. W. Alexander, 
Thoughts on Preaching (New York: Scribner, 1867), which is full of 
practical ideas, valuable in illustrations from the great preachers; 
E. C. Dargan, History of Preaching (New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 
Vol. I, 1904 (to the Reformation); Vol. II, 191 1 (to the end of the nine- 
teenth century), the best complete treatment; Lewis O. Brastow, Repre- 
sentative Modern Preachers (New York: Macmillan, 1904); The Modern 
Pulpit (New York: George H. Doran & Co., 1906), which presents 
excellent discussions of six great preachers and of the nineteenth- 
century pulpit. 

II. CHURCH POLITY 
I. DEFINITION AND SCOPE 

Ecclesiology is the historic name for the science which 
treats of the organization of the church. It was concerned 
with the problems of the origin of church government and its 
historical development, and with all that pertained to the 
institutional administration of the church. Among more 
elaborately organized bodies the subject of church law was of 
great importance. In the modern church, with its greatly 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 595 

enlarged interests and functions, and its numerous more or 
less extra-ecclesiastical societies, two distinct lines of adminis- 
trative interest emerge: 

1. The ecclesiastical interest. — This has to do with the 
question of the orders of the clergy, the permanent con- 
stitution of the church, the various courts and assemblies 
in which authority is vested, and the legislation which these 
courts and assemblies impose. Here also is included the 
consideration of the conditions necessary to church mem- 
bership and the rules governing the administration of the 
sacraments. 

2. The practical interest. — The important administrative 
problems of the modern church as they arise practically in 
church work are, for the most part, non-ecclesiastical, and are 
concerned with economic efficiency, adaptation to changing 
conditions, and the training and employment of many types 
of expert leaders. 

These two interests are so manifestly different that there is 
a convenience in treating them as separate subjects in prac- 
tical theology. The term ''ecclesiology " may well be dropped 
and the traditional term '^ church polity" or ''church polity 
and law" employed for the first of these, and the more prac- 
tical term ''church administration" for the second. 

2. THE HISTORIC PLACE OF CHURCH POLITY 

The church, almost from the beginning, has been domi- 
nated by the idea that its form of government is of divine origin 
and of the very essence of revealed reHgion. It has been com- 
monly supposed that the New Testament presents a consistent 
scheme of ecclesiastical organization intended to be the stand- 
ard for all time. This has been variously interpreted as 
autocratic, aristocratic, representative, democratic; as con- 
sisting of three orders, bishops, presbyters, and deacons, or 
of only two orders, the two terms, bishop and presbyter, 
pertaining to the same office. Similar differences have 



596 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

obtained regarding the theory of the sacraments. The prob- 
lems here involved are evidently exegetical and historical, 
according as the questions of New Testament language and 
ecclesiastical procedure are concerned. The treatment of 
the subject has been essentially apologetic, for the organi- 
zation of the given church was to be proved historically 
correct. 

Inasmuch as these questions have been very prominent 
in church consciousness the subject of church polity has been 
of great importance. This importance is still retained in those 
sections of the church which regard themselves as alone fol- 
lowing the form of divinely ordained organization. 

3. THE MODERN VIEW OF CHURCH POLITY 

In the light of modem New Testament research church 
polity undergoes a transformation such as does systematic 
theology. As we no longer form a system of Christian think- 
ing from New Testament proof-texts, so neither can we form 
a system of church government in that way. As the question 
whether our theological thinking is efhcient cannot wait for 
the last word of textual, historical, and literary criticism, so 
neither can the question of the definite constitution of the 
church. If we cannot draw up an authoritative New Testa- 
ment creed as a basis for church membership, so neither can 
we designate authoritative forms. But, on the other hand, as 
our modern theology is inspired by the great Christian experi- 
ences of the creative personalities of its early days, the New 
Testament thus being of highest value for our Christian think- 
ing, so is our church organization given historical dignity aad 
high rehgious value from the New Testament examples. And 
the historic forms of church initiation and sacramental observ- 
ances have a like significance. That is to say, the same shifts 
from external authority to approved religious value have 
occurred here as everywhere else. Antiquity and tradition 
become not regulative but meaningful. 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 597 

4. THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF CHURCH POLITY 

The significance of various church polities. — Church polity 
to the modem man becomes a study in efficiency, due regard 
being given to the value for efficiency of emotional attitudes 
toward time-honored and rehgiously significant procedure. 
Christendom is composed of great historic churches, each of 
them with an organized Hfe, whose forms are dear to its mem- 
bers and of definite religious worth to them. On the other 
hand, the churches are cumbered with constitutional con- 
ditions and requirements that are irksome to large numbers of 
religiously minded people. The modern study of church 
poHty, therefore, is concerned with estimating the economic 
values of systems which the historic process has bequeathed 
to us. 

Denominational organization. — The minister of each de- 
nomination will need to understand in detail the specific organ- 
ization of his body. In the more highly organized bodies 
that are under episcopal and presbyterial control this involves 
a knowledge of the organic law of the church, its officers, 
courts, modes of procedure, and of the constitution of the 
various boards by which the denominational interests are 
carried on. In the less highly organized bodies the subjects 
for study would be the city, district, state, and national 
organizations, whose constitutions and interrelations are being 
constantly more clearly defined, and, in connection with these, 
the boards and societies to which is committed the larger 
denominational work. Each body has its problems of denom- 
inational policy which are under discussion in the denomina- 
tional press, and at the various conventions and assemblies, 
and which may well constitute subjects for scholarly investi- 
gation in practical theology. 

The trend toward democratization. — Rigid as church 
poHties are supposed to be, they are all yielding to the modern 
spirit. There is an unmistakable trend in the more highly 
organized churches toward the determining of poKcy and pro- 



598 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

cedure by the membership. The democratic churches which 
have- developed extra-ecclesiastical societies, whose govern- 
ment has been virtually oHgarchical, are taking possession of 
those societies and bringing them under popular control. 
Laymen are becoming more and more significant in the govern- 
ment of all churches. Positions which until recently could 
have been held only by ministers are now held by men who 
regard ordination for themselves as undesirable. With the 
expanding influence of the church into society, ordination 
itself is becoming to some degree a question of ecclesiastical 
convenience. The basis of church membership is being made 
more and more a question of personal conscience and less of 
ecclesiastical conformity. 

The trend toward organized efficiency. — The commercial 
word ^'efficiency" is coming into larger ecclesiastical use. On 
any theory of the New Testament only a small part of modern 
church Hfe can there find its regulative constitution. The 
ever-widening work of the church is constantly being carried 
on under the influence of economic considerations. Those 
churches that regarded themselves as pure democracies are 
developing a denominational officialism for the conduct of 
missionary endeavors which has the efficiency value of episco- 
pacy; and within the local church work is so organized under 
committees and boards that the ruHng eldership largely 
obtains. The study of these tendencies and of their meaning 
for social progress constitutes the new and important task 
of church poHty. 

Literature. — Each denomination has its own treatise on polity. A 
few of the more important may be noted. F. N. Westcott, Catholic 
Principles (Milwaukee: Young Churchman Co., 1902), is a frank 
presentation of the polity and order of the Episcopal church from the 
High Church standpoint. It indicates the fundamental law of the 
church. Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
(New York: Eaton & Mains, 1904, an official edition) is the official 
handbook of polity and order. The Methodist Episcopal Church South 
has a similar publication. S. M. Merrill, A Digest of Methodist Law 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 599 

(New York: Eaton & Mains, 1900), is, as its name implies, a brief 
treatise giving the main points of procedure. W. H. Roberts, Presby- 
terian Digest (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1907), 
is a monumental work dealing with the elaborate legislation of two 
hundred years and codifying the law and precedent. Hodge, What 
Is Presbyterian Law? (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 
1903), is a brief working compendium of the law and order of the denomi- 
nation. W.E. Barton, Barton^ s Manual (Chicago: Puritan Press, 1910), 
is a presentation of the polity of the Congregational church as it is at 
present developing into greater efficiency. This useful work also 
includes rules of order for ecclesiastical assemblies. While this work 
has been prepared for the Congregational denomination, it is valuable 
for all forms of congregational polity. Theodore G. Soares, A Baptist 
Manual (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 191 1), gives an 
exposition of Baptist polity in its present development, including a model 
constitution for a Baptist church. 

III. CHURCH ADMINISTRATION 
I. DEFINITION AND SCOPE 

As already indicated, this title might seem to be synony- 
mous with church polity; but if the latter term be kept for the 
study of historical forms of church organization and their 
significance in the changing conditions of today, we may con- 
veniently discuss under church administration the problems of 
the organization of modern church life. 

With the enlarging activities in the church, the develop- 
ment of distinct types of churches, the relation of the church 
to the welfare and reformative movements of the time, and 
the emphasis on the expressive aspect of religion, this subject 
has attained great importance. The efEciency of the minister 
today is to no small extent a question of administrative ability. 

2. CHURCH TYPES 

The complexity of church administration arises from the 
fact that the social conditions of our day have inevitably pro- 
duced different types of churches. We no longer have simply 
large and small churches, those of cultured people and those 



6oo GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

of the less educated, all of which may be virtually of the same 
type calling for exactly the same kind of administration; but 
we have very marked diversities of condition which demand 
new organization and activity. 

The family church. — The traditional American church 
still continues in the towns, in the small cities, and in the 
suburbs of large cities. While it has some new and very 
pressing reHgious responsibilities in the direction of relating 
itself to the social progress of our times, its administrative 
problems are relatively simple, having to do with efficient sys- 
tems of finance, the organization of the membership in 
significant activities, and the newer opportunities of religious 
education, largely conceived. 

The downtown church. — The crowding of metropolitan 
sections has resulted in the recession of the well-to-do classes 
into exclusive residence districts and into suburbs. The 
great church which at one time included the ablest people of 
the city becomes stranded in a boarding-house district. The 
gravest administrative problems immediately arise. The 
population is larger than ever, the reHgious need is greater than 
ever, the necessity of expert leadership is enhanced. Money 
must be raised in excess of what the ordinary congregations 
can supply. Teachers and workers of a higher grade than the 
neighborhood can furnish are required. In the contest with 
cheap amusement, and among a population in which no family 
ties contribute to church allegiance, the advertising and 
follow-up methods of business life become imperative. The 
pastor, while endeavoring to keep a study, must have also an 
office. He must have an assistant, a secretary, a stenographer, 
filing-cabinets, card catalogues, etc. The administration of 
such a church becomes a serious and compHcated problem. 

The institutional church. — The downtown church usually 
finds that it has opportunity and necessity to make larger 
appeal to its parish than the conventional church ordinarily 
undertakes. The problem of evil amusement must be met 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 6oi 

by the provision for healthful recreation, athletic, social, 
dramatic. The natural gathering of young people into groups 
and societies can be very well supervised by the church. 
Industrial classes, vocational classes, and various other educa- 
tional opportunities may be provided. The church may even 
become an employment agency, a bank, a boarding-house 
registry — it may do anything for the welfare of the community. 
Such highly developed churches have been rather inf elicitously 
called institutional. It is manifest that the administrative 
problems of such organizations are increasingly complex. 
Large funds have to be raised, many experts have to be em- 
ployed. Considerable inventiveness and initiative are neces- 
sary to keep it in the current of the community life. 

The union church. — ^There are numerous conditions in 
which Protestantism finds itself unable to maintain its 
life in its present divided state. Sometimes in the down- 
town district, more often in the sparsely settled suburbs, 
quite generally in the new community, it is simply impossible 
that there should be four or five denominational churches. 
The necessities of the case result in a return to the parish 
church in which denominational affiliations are either 
minimized or abandoned, and in which the conditions of 
membership are the broad spiritual requirements of common 
Christianity. The problems of organization here arise from 
the peculiar necessity of adapting the church to its local 
situation. 

The rural church. — It has been a question whether the 
country church could survive. The movement of the chil- 
dren of former church members to the cities, the tenancy of 
farms by foreigners, the emphasis of denominationahsm in 
the face of lessening numbers, have been serious causes of the 
decline of the country church. But there are encouraging 
signs that the country church has a great future. With the 
development of social interests in the farming communities 
a new type of church much the same as the institutional church 



6o2 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

of the cities has a great opportunity to contribute to the en- 
largement of life, intellectual, aesthetic, recreational, as well 
as specifically moral and religious. If the economic handi- 
caps of denominationalism can be overcome, there are possi- 
bilities of the development of a vigorous church life under 
spiritual leadership. If this is to be done, it is evident that 
men of unusual strength must devote themselves to the pas- 
toral management of such churches, and that they must have 
a peculiar training which will fit them to understand thor- 
oughly the problems of the communities which they serve. 
Interesting suggestions are being made regarding a possible 
alliance between the theological seminary and the agricultural 
school in the training of the country minister. 

3. SPECIALISM IN THE MINISTRY 

It is evident that whatever interest may still attach to the 
significance of the orders of the ministry, the actual conditions 
of modern church life compel attention to the different types 
of ministry. Of these there are at least four: the preacher, 
the teacher, the pastor, and the administrator. One of the 
most difficult problems before us today lies in this necessity 
of specialism. 

The preaching ministry. — The question as to whether the 
preaching function of the ministry may be maintained never 
arises in the presence of a real preacher. He dominates the 
situation. He is the minister, and whoever else may be in- 
cluded in the leadership of the church are his assistants. It 
not infrequently happens that the orator has less fitness for 
the other functions of the ministry, and inefficiency may there- 
fore result. 

The teaching ministry. — The developing educational work 
of the church demands peculiar speciaHsm entirely different 
from that of the preacher. A most significant administra- 
tive question today is whether the church will be willing 
to put its ministry of teaching on a par with that of 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 603 

preaching. In many cases the educational leader is not 
ordained. 

The pastoral ministry. — For many reasons the preacher 
should be the pastor, and yet this becomes increasingly 
difficult in large churches. The service of the pastoral minis- 
try calls for peculiar gifts and abilities, and it cannot be 
satisfactorily discharged by the ordinary assistant minister. 
Sometimes by sheer force of pastoral goodness an indifferent 
preacher sustains his work; but there is a possibility of 
specialism with a significant place for the real pastor. 

The administrative ministry. — The large and elaborately 
organized churches always have various assistants in adminis- 
trative capacities. An important question is whether there is 
place for a man, not necessarily ordained, who by special 
training in the executive phases of church life shall be able to 
take the leadership of the church in its great modern develop- 
ments. 

4. CHURCH ARCmXECTURE 

The enlargement of functions, with the graded educa- 
tional work of the church, is requiring a new type of building. 
Our churchly feelings are stirred by the traditional forms of 
ecclesiastical architecture, the Gothic holding the first place. 
But the churchly structure is to be an auditorium, and con- 
nected with it must be opportunities for the religious exercises 
of many different groups, together with numerous separated 
classrooms, and in addition society rooms, clubrooms, kitchen 
and dining-room, lecture-room, and perhaps gymnasium, 
bowling-alley, and even swimming-pool. These problems are 
particularly acute where the needs of the community call for a 
diversified work, and where the funds available do not per- 
mit of an elaborate building. As function must always 
determine form in every structure, it is evident that new 
and most interesting problems confront the church architect. 
There is necessity here for some co-operation between the 
practical leaders of the church and the schools of architecture. 



6o4 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

The latter have made scarcely any attempt to understand the 
needs of the modern church. 



5. THE ORGANIZATION OF CHURCHES 

The constitution. — Whether the constitution of the local 
church is provided for it by a larger body or is the product of its 
own independent requirements, it will have little relation to 
the New Testament beyond a very few central points, for the 
reason that the modern church is concerned with so many 
matters that did not affect the primitive church. The consti- 
tution, therefore, or the by-laws, or the church rules, must 
develop in accordance with the demands of efficiency. 

Group organizations. — The important practical questions 
regarding subordinate organizations within the church are 
(i) by what authority they shall be organized, (2) to what 
extent they shall be supervised, (3) what relation they shall 
have to other agencies of a similar character, so that the 
whole work of the church may be correlated without gaps 
and without overlapping. 

Important developments of modern times have been the 
sex and age differentiations within the church. The official 
positions, the direction of missionary activity, the provision 
of financial support have been for the most part in the hands 
of the adult men; women's organizations were formed to 
secure specific interests or service from women, and later 
came specific organizations to give young people a larger 
opportunity. It has finally become necessary to secure a 
larger place and activity for the adult men, who were rather 
left out of account in the multiplying societies. Numerous 
men's organizations have therefore of late come into being. 

Literature. — The Efficient Layman (Philadelphia: Griffith & Row- 
land, 191 1), by H. F. Cope, is a good discussion of this last development. 
A book is promised by F. O. Erb, on The Young People's Movement 
in the Modern Church, which will deal with present conditions in that 
field. Women's work is discussed by Gladden in The Christian Pastor 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 605 

and the Working Church (New York: Scribner, 1906), which is still the 
best book on the whole subject of church organizations. 

Financial methods. — The church has become a very 
complicated financial organization. As endowments are few, 
the large budgets must be raised entirely by voluntary con- 
tribution. People may have the benefit of an expensive 
plant and large ministries, and yet decide for themselves 
whether they will pay anything for the privilege. A vigorous 
church may have a dozen treasuries, each needing to be con- 
stantly supplied. Carelessness at any point means disaster. 
No church does good work whose finances are mismanaged. 
A marked sign of religious vitality is the willingness of people 
to give in large sums and constantly to the enterprises in 
which they believe. Great importance, therefore, attaches 
to the orderly management of the securing and disbursing of 
funds. Usually money for the current expenses of the church, 
regarded as a definite indebtedness, is kept distinct m fact and 
in thought from the missionary and philanthropic contribu- 
tions, regarded as benevolence. But the greatest efficiency 
requires that every member of the church and congregation 
shall be a contributor to both of these. Regularity is also of 
prime importance, and the system of weekly givmg is be- 
coming more and more common. Able business men should 
have these matters in charge, the pastor being relieved of all 
specific responsibility. Subordinate societies should be sub- 
ject to some supervision as to their financial affairs. The 
plan of having a single treasury with which all the societies 
bank their funds is receiving thoughtful consideration. 

The organization of parochial work. — Efficiency in reli- 
gious work depends upon adequate skilled oversight and 
large voluntary activity. The church is best conceived as an 
organization of the religious people of the community for 
the largest service to the community. It is organized friend- 
liness, the organization being necessary because of the number 
of friends and the number to be befriended. Various methods 



6o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

are in operation for the division of the church membership 
for mutual acquaintance and help and for the visitation of 
the unchurched. This is peculiarly the work of the pastor, 
and one of his largest opportunities will be in seeing that 
every member has some helpful duty assigned to him, 
and that every possibility of helpfulness is adequately 
grasped. 

Literature. — Dr. Gladden's The Christian Pastor and the Working 
Church (New York: Scribner, 1896, 1906) is very suggestive in this 
matter; also Mead's Modern Methods in Church Work (New York: 
Hodder & Stoughton, 1896). 

6. INTERDENOMINATIONAL RELATIONS 

The parish. — In the days of a single state church the limits 
of jurisdiction and responsibility for each local church were 
readily defined upon a geographical basis. Everyone within 
that area was in the parish of the pastor. Within a given 
denomination the territory is still roughly divided into par- 
ishes, and each church is supposed to be responsible for the 
denominational interests within its more or less uncertainly 
defined jurisdiction. Some very acute intradenominational 
problems are here involved, and in many cases much energy 
is wasted through competition among churches of the same 
name. Some method of more definite parochial division is 
greatly needed within most of the religious bodies. The 
problem is much more acute, however, when from four to 
twenty denominations are operating within the same terri- 
tory. In communities where there are enough members of 
each body to sustain a vigorous church there is no particular 
difficulty, except that no single church feels the proper respon- 
sibility for the great mass of the unchurched. Where the popu- 
lation is not sufficient to sustain all the bodies, the condition is 
often unsatisfactory and sometimes deplorable. Movements 
of comity, co-operation, and union are thus very much to the 
fore. 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 607 

Interdenominational comity. — ^Although rivalry and com- 
petition among Christian bodies unhappily still continue, it 
is being generally realized that the religious situation of today 
calls at least for certain agreements and divisions of labor. 
No church should start an out-station where it will rival a 
similar undertaking of another body. In the establishment 
of new churches the religious needs of the district should be 
considered in a broad way. The organization of the Federal 
Council of the Churches of Christ in America is a hopeful 
movement toward a more effective organization of the Protes- 
tant forces and the elimination of useless and harmful compe- 
tition. A local council of this federation ought to be organized 
in every community. The reports of the Federal Council and 
of its commissions ought to be in the library of every church 
and the subject of its earnest study. 

Interdenominational co-operation. — There are many re- 
spects in which actual co-operation can take place, and the 
Federal Council is the best agency for projecting and conduct- 
ing plans to this end. The unchurched population may be 
definitely canvassed and divided among the churches. Effort 
may be made to bring all the children of the community to the 
Sunday school. A community house may be established for 
recreative purposes, or affiliation with the Christian Associa- 
tions may secure the same results. Evangelistic campaigns 
may be conducted. Indeed, unlimited endeavors for com- 
munity betterment may be undertaken in this way. We are 
only at the beginning of the possibilities of church co-operation. 
The newly awakened interest in religious education, concern- 
ing which there is so little opportunity for difference of 
opinion, and in which denominations markedly diverse may 
unite, is particularly favorable for this larger co-operation. 

Church unity. — The Christian church is about equally 
divided between those who look for the organic union of 
Christian bodies as the only possible ideal toward which to 
strive, and those who regard the division of the church into 



6o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

a few great denominations as the most reasonable and effective 
method of promoting the rehgious interests. Probably a 
great deal of energy is being employed in talk about unity by 
those who are not willing to make the slightest sacrifice of 
personal opinion or attitude in order to secure it. Some 
very interesting attempts are actually being made, in small 
suburbs and in rural districts, to have a single Protestant 
church connected with no denomination in which the largest 
liberty shall be permitted in the matter of religious opinion. 
Probably we have not yet reached a point where anything 
more can be said than that each community must endeavor 
to meet its own problem in the most economical and effective 
way. If there are a few ultra-denominationahsts, a union 
of the churches would probably do more harm than good, 
and it is a question whether the failures have not been as 
significant as the successes. Some special phases of this 
problem will be more properly discussed in connection with 
missions. 

7. THE CHURCH AND THE COMMUNITY 

The church and other social institutions. — Many churches 
do not yet recognize that a great deal of work which was once 
entirely under ecclesiastical control is now more properly 
undertaken by other agencies. The state is constantly assum- 
ing responsibility for larger and larger areas of social interests, 
and of those social activities which must still be undertaken 
by private organizations many appeal to a wider constituency 
than that of the religious community. All earnest citizens 
are interested in kindergartens, hospitals, playgrounds, the 
prevention of crime, the extinction of tuberculosis, child wel- 
fare, etc. The church must not feel jealous of these goodly 
endeavors outside of its own communion, but must rather 
encourage its members to enter into all of them, inspiring them 
with its own religious fervor and motive. It will often be 
desirable for the church to hand over activities in which it has 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 609 

been greatly interested, because a larger number of persons 
may thus be secured to engage in them. 

Relation to philanthropy and moral education. — While 
there are many social activities into which the church can 
enter only through its individual members, there are others 
in which it may have a part organically. This is particularly 
the case as regards the charities and juvenile protective agen- 
cies. On account of the personal character of the relations 
involved in these endeavors, each church may well undertake, 
in connection with the city or community organization, cer- 
tain specific responsibilities, such as the care and comfort of 
particular families or of particular children. This is an 
extension of its pastoral office which it should eagerly seek to 
make. In this way the philanthropies may be furthered, and 
at the same time the church may secure the educational 
opportunity of sending its own trained workers, clerical and 
lay (and more and more the latter), into genuinely social en- 
deavors. In order to promote this social interest the Survey 
(122 East Twenty-second Street, New York) ought to be in 
every church library and as far as possible in every home. 

Relation to political and reform movements. — Great care 
is needed in relating the church as an organization to move- 
ments which involve specific political and social theories . The 
church is for all the people, and there are religious people in all 
the political parties and on both sides of many social issues. 
Yet the church may lose its moral leadership by being too 
timorous. If some religious people think that the state has no 
right to regulate the labor of women and children and the 
hygienic conditions under which workmen shall be employed, 
the church is not obliged to hold itself silent in deference to 
their wishes. We can have no social progress until we share 
the prophetic passion for social justice. Perhaps there is no 
more difficult problem before the preacher and teacher of 
today than the tactful yet courageous appeal to have the 
church take its place in social reform. 



6io GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Literature. — ^The beautiful spirit as well as the keen analysis of the 
books of Professor Rauschenbusch make them valuable to the minister 
and for adult classes in the church. Read also W. H. Roberts, Laws 
Relating to Religious Corporations (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of 
Publication) . It is important for the church to understand its legal status. 
•This work presents the statutes of the various states as to incorporation, 
management, etc. It is brought down only to 1896. Washington 
Gladden, The Christian Pastor and the Working Church (New York: Scrib- 
ner, 1898), while concerned principally with the typical city church, deals 
with manifold forms of organization for religious efficiency. In Parish 
Problems (New York: Century Co., 1887) Dr. Gladden has discussed 
particularly the church in its relation to its social opportunities. George 
Hodges and John Reichert, in The Administration of an Institutional 
Church (New York: Harper, 1906), give a detailed account of the 
operation of St. George's Parish, New York. The book is very suggestive 
in respect to varied forms of church activity. W. H. Wilson, The 
Church of the Open Country (New York: Missionary Education Move- 
ment, 191 1), is the best book dealing with the problems and opportunities 
of the rural church. *Mead, Modern Methods of Church Work (New 
York: George H. Doran & Co., 1896), is a storehouse of valuable sug- 
gestion to the minister. Here are brought together the plans and 
projects that have been successful in various churches. Forms for 
advertising and for various invitations are given, so that the busy minis- 
ter may find many matters worked out for him. J. F. Cowan, New Life 
in the Old Prayer Meeting (New York: Revell, 1906), on this single 
phase of church activity is full of good suggestion. William B . Patterson, 
Modern Church Brotherhoods (New York: Revell, 191 1), deals with 
the character and opportunity of men's organizations, which have been 
prolific of recent years. H. F. Cope, The Efficient Layman (Philadel- 
phia: Griffith & Rowland Press, 191 1), is another treatment of the men's 
activities in the church. 



IV. PASTORAL CARE 
I. DEFINITION 

The division of practical theology relating to the personal 
and private as distinguished from the organizational and 
public work of the ministry has been traditionally known as 
poimenics. It inevitably included the matters of parish 
visitation, and even of the relief of the poor, which we should 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 6ii 

now more naturally treat under the organization of the church. 
The subject may be confined to the personal relations of the 
minister with the families and members of the church com- 
munity, and with the individuals outside of the church com- 
munity who may be won to the religious life. As Dr. Jefferson 
has pointed out in his stimulating work, The Minister as Shep- 
herd, it is this important phase of ministerial duty which gives 
such great significance to the title '^ pastor." He rightly 
holds that it is the most significant of all the names which are 
appHed to the professional leader of the church. 

2. THE CURE OF SOULS 

The traditions of the pastoral office. — The ancient phrase, 
^'the cure of souls," appearing in English at least as early as 
the fourteenth century, referred, of course, to the charge or 
care of the parishioners who were committed to the ministerial 
oversight. As the magistrate had the care of the temporal 
interests, so to the priests were committed the spiritual inter- 
ests of the people. 

As a result of the pastoral charge given by Christ to the 
apostles, by Paul to the Ephesian elders, and elaborated in the 
so-called Pastoral Letters, it was the inevitable expectation 
of the church that her ministers would be the shepherds of the 
spiritual flock. The people needed moral and religious guid- 
ance, admonition, discipline, comfort, encouragement. The 
pastor was appointed that he might minister to these needs. 
In literature, from the Canterbury Tales to The Deserted Village, 
wherever the good minister was portrayed it was the faith- 
ful shepherd, true, wise, self-sacrificing, sometimes severe, 
always fearless, who led men to righteousness and peace. 

Two great treatises of the seventeenth century, The 
Country Parson, by George Herbert, and The Reformed Pastor, 
by Richard Baxter, present the ideal of the pastoral office in 
the Protestant churches, and these two works, so nobly and 
tenderly written, coming out of the ripe experience of their 



6i2 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

saintly authors, will always remain classics upon the subject. 
Here the pastor is the teacher who must instruct the unlearned; 
he is the spiritual guide who must counsel and admonish the 
erring; he is the religious comforter who must bring the con- 
solations of religion to the sick and the dying; he is the mes- 
senger of salvation who must seek out the lost and bring them 
to repentance and faith. 

The pastoral office in the modem world. — The foregoing 
statement of functions may seem at first to relate to an out- 
grown office. Our educated and democratic people are 
little inclined to brook domination, and usually regard them- 
selves as quite as well qualified to determine matters of 
duty as the minister. Many people feel that they will be 
glad to welcome their pastor at any time as a social visitor, 
but have no desire for a "pastoral call." Jefferson has made 
a very keen analysis of the problem in its modern phases and, 
out of the experience of his busy metropolitan ministry, most 
earnestly contends that the pastoral office is needed even more 
today than it was in the past. 

The minister as priest. — The modern minister is still in a 
certain sense a priest. With all the changes that have taken 
place in his own and in the public estimation of his office, it is 
still true that he is set apart to hold a mediatorial position 
between God and man — not, of course, in the sense that he has 
the secret of approach to the divine which is withheld from the 
laity, but that it is peculiarly his business to help men to know 
God and to serve as the interpreter of God to men. It is 
for him to take in special manner upon himself the responsi- 
bility for the spiritual welfare of the people. However 
successful he may be as preacher, administrator, teacher, 
lecturer, promoter of worthy enterprises, there remains the 
personal relation to the people who are in need of comfort and 
spiritual help, which it is his peculiar function to mediate. 

The minister, after all, is not quite the same as other 
men. He may give up the distinctive ecclesiastical garb and 




AL THEOLOGY 613 



many of the traditional trappii\gs of his office, but the very 
fact that he officiates on the significant occasions of life — at 
marriage, where he pronounces the bkssing of the church upon 
man and wife; at baptism, whether of infant or confessor, 
where he performs the ceremony of initiation into the church 
membership; at the burying of the dead, where he speaks the 
faith and hope of the church in the life to come — all this gives 
him a certain sacerdotal character even in the least ecclesiasti- 
cal communions. Moreover, however carefully any semblance 
of the confessional be avoided, the pastor is, in the nature 
of the case, very often the expert counselor in matters of 
conscience. Sophisticated people may insist that they have 
no need of a priest, but the human heart has not changed, and 
many people still have need of the personal help which the 
appointed religious leader may afford. 

The old phrase, " the consolations of religion," from which 
we have revolted a little in our rightful insistence upon an 
aggressive Christianity, stood, nevertheless, for a fundamental 
human need. A great many people ought to be comforted, 
and most of them will welcome the effort if it be wisely and 
graciously bestowed. The pressure of modern life has only 
made the common burdens more grievous to be borne. It is 
for the pastor to administer the consolation. 

The consensus of opinion of the most efficient ministers 
of today is that more emphasis must be put upon the pastoral 
function. They insist that preaching is vitalized by contact 
with the people in their personal interests and needs, and that 
no organization of visitation can take the place of the pres- 
ence of the minister in the home. Of course this raises the 
serious problem of how practically to secure such personal 
relation with every member of the parish without the waste 
of time involved in mere social calling and perfunctory visiting. 

The pastor as friend. — This is the title of an excellent 
chapter in Gladden's The Christian Pastor and the Working 
Church, in which he discusses the subject of pastoral care. 



6i4 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

He lays emphasis upon the essential friendship of the pastoral 
relation. It is a most important conception, for it saves the 
office from the professional sacerdotalism which robs it of its 
finest character. When the pastoral office is at its best the 
minister is present in every time of need as a valued friend. 
The people want him because they love him. He makes their 
joys sweeter and their sorrows easier to bear. At the bedside 
of the sick, in the house of mourning, in the family that is 
waiting for the prodigal to return, in conversation with the 
perplexed and with the erring, he is the strong and wise friend, 
every ready and ever able to help. 

One of the supreme qualities of the minister is his capacity 
for loving people, and that includes liking them. Other men 
may deal with cases; he deals with persons. He is willing 
to pay the price in the tax upon his sympathy of a wide- 
extended friendship. He is the friend of those who are rich 
in friendships, and also of those who are so poor of friends that 
they are lonely. 

Literature. — The following are of value: George Herbert, The 
Country Parson, an old book, but very vital in its gracious discussion of 
pastoral duty; Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, a book still 
practical after three hundred years ; Washington Gladden, The Christian 
Pastor and the Working Church, chap, vii (New York: Scribner, 1898, 
1906); *Charles Edward Jefferson, The Minister as Shepherd (New 
York: Crowell, 191 2), is modern, practical, eminently wise and evangeli- 
cal; Oswald Dykes, The Christian Minister and His Duties (Edin- 
burgh: Clark, 1908), a more formal work, but wise and suggestive; the 
fourth section deals with the minister "as pastor"; Theodore L. Cuyler, 
How to Be a Pastor (New York: Baker & Taylor, 1890), a fresh and 
helpful treatment coming out of a long and successful ministry. 

V. LITURGICS 
I. DEFINITION 

The subject of liturgies may be variously considered. A 
broad study may be made of the origin, history, and signifi- 
cance of religious ceremonial. This would involve the study 



practical' THEOLOGY 615 

of primitive ritual and of the part which it played in the devel- 
opment of social control, an aspect of the subject of liturgies 
which belongs to the history of religion. Again, the various 
religious rites and ceremonies may be analyzed with reference 
to the ideas which they embody and to the emotional states 
which they are calculated to express or to produce. The 
psychology of religion would treat of liturgies in this aspect. 
Christian liturgies has a significant historical growth with 
origins in Judaism and in paganism and an intimate connec- 
tion with the development of doctrine. In this phase it 
belongs in the field of church history. But in addition to 
these the subject is of high importance in modern religious 
expression, including a consideration of the type of liturgy 
to be employed, the technique of the performance of ritual, 
and a study of the values to be secured by its employment. 
It is this aspect of the subject which properly belongs to prac- 
tical theology, and with it may well be included the subject of 
hymnology. 

2. THE PSYCHOXOGY OF LITURGICS 

The full treatment of this subject, as noted above, belongs 
to the psychology of religion. Certain aspects must be noted, 
however, for their bearing on practical problems. 

Psychological principles involved in the employment 
of liturgy. — Historically, ritual probably had two purposes. 
In the first place it was directed toward the god. The divine 
favor was to be secured or the divine displeasure averted by 
certain established ceremonials which it was necessary to per- 
form according to a recognized technique in order that they 
might be efficacious. As a magic the proper performance 
of the ritual compelled the god to comply with the wishes 
of the worshiper. In a refined form this has come down 
through the stages of religious development in the concep- 
tion that fitting worship is well-pleasing to God. This idea 
is preserved in the expression ''divine service." But ritual 



6i6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

had always another purpose. When impressively performed 
it was found to have an effect upon the worshipers. It aroused 
emotions that were felt to be congruous with the exercises 
of worship. The ritual was therefore elaborated with refer- 
ence to the production of this effect. This, too, came down 
through the stages of religious development, issuing in Chris- 
tianity in the gorgeous ceremonial of the mass and in the 
numerous less elaborate liturgical services. An interesting 
manifestation of the same tendency in our own time is the 
development of the revival music, which melts the hetero- 
geneous elements of a crowd into a unity. 

Manifestly, in modern ethical religion there can be no 
idea of influencing God by means of ceremonial, though there 
may well be the belief that worship is pleasing to him as mani-^ 
festing a right attitude on the part of his people. But the 
dominant purpose of worship must be the production of cer- 
tain moods and emotional reactions which we recognize as 
religious, such as the contemplative, the restful, the hopeful, 
the trusting, the aspirational, the ecstatic. And in an ethical 
religion these moods and emotions are not ends in themselves 
but are designed to facilitate desirable conduct and desirable 
attitudes toward life and its problems. 

Evidently, then, the modern test of a ritual must be prag- 
matic, just as we have found it to be the case with an ecclesi- 
astical polity. In the nature of the case, other things being 
equal, antiquity, tradition, and the rich associations of the 
past will tend to enhance the emotional effect of a ceremonial. 
So far prescription must ever remain an inherent virtue of a 
liturgical form. But if the rationalizing process has emascu- 
lated of its value the idea which the symbol conveyed, its 
antiquity may go for nothing. It may lose all its power to 
stir emotion, or it may even become obnoxious. Thus the 
mass, so profoundly significant to the Roman Catholic, has 
wholly lost any power to stimulate religious emotion in the 
ordinary Protestant. Or changing taste may so alter the 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 617 

attitude of the worshiper that rites which formerly seemed 
deeply significant may appear to be trivial; liturgical exer- 
cises that were once productive of reverence may become 
tiresome. To some persons the solemn chant is dull and 
tedious; to others the lively gospel song is irreverent and 
painful. 

The modem problem of worship. — A most important 
problem which has received very little consideration is the 
effect of the church service upon the occupants of the pews. 
We can no longer think of the service as something demanded 
by God to which the worshiper is therefore compelled to sub- 
mit. We must think of it as an exercise designed entirely to 
help the worshiper in securing the right religious attitude 
toward God, life, and duty. We must consider, then, the 
presuppositions with which our worshiper enters the church. 
The psychology of apperception is important here. We must 
estimate his attitude toward each element of the worship. 
We must consider what may check the rising tide of emotion 
and what may carry it on to the full. We must analyze our 
ceremonial as to its impressive or expressive character with a 
view to a certain balance between these elements. We must 
see whether the various emotions of reverence, contrition, 
aspiration, joy are called forth in natural order. The psy- 
chology of attention and of interest will be of the greatest 
significance in studying our problem. 

The technique of the administration of worship is of great 
importance. Given the proper elements and the most effec- 
tive rites, are the minis trants qualified to carry them through ? 
Here personality counts for a great deal. But there is a 
certain freedom, attitude, inner appreciation, sense of har- 
mony, even quality of voice, accuracy of enunciation, power 
of interpretation, which are vital to success. As regards the 
ministry of song, apart from the selection of fitting music 
there is again the question of personality in the singer, and 
there is a fitness of the rendition of the music to the circum- 



6i8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

stances of worship. Thus anything in the nature of display 
is immediately destructive of the mood of worship, so that the 
music most admirable from the standpoint of artistic tech- 
nique may be utterly objectionable for the purpose of educing 
religious feeling in the congregation. 

3. PREVAILING LITURGICAL FORMS 

Liturgies prescribed by rubric. — In many churches the 
matter of liturgy is altogether prescribed and the business of 
the minister is to become thoroughly acquainted with the 
rites, ceremonies, forms, vestments, and ministrations. He 
will naturally seek to know the history of the ritual of which 
he is the ministrant, and will wish to understand the inter- 
pretation of the various symbols and forms which the best 
modern thinking of his own church affords. In all bodies 
which have traditional liturgies there are those who dogmati- 
cally insist upon the retention of the historical meaning 
of the various elements. But in all these bodies there are 
also thoughtful men who appreciate the new world in which 
we are living, and who, while reverently and affectionately 
maintaining the old forms, find larger meaning in them in 
accordance with modern needs. It is idle to modernize one's 
theology if one does not also modernize the interpretation 
of his liturgy. 

The ministrant of the prescribed liturgy will also be con- 
cerned to study the effect of the various elements upon his 
congregation. General psychological principles will be help- 
ful, but on the basis of these he ought to make as careful a 
practical study as he may of the actual results secured in the 
experience of the worshipers. He should attempt to analyze 
his own reactions to the service and those of the various 
types of persons who are in attendance. Again, the tech- 
nique of ministration will be most important here. And even 
where the prescriptions of the church are very definite there 
is often large opportunity for individuality of expression. 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 619 

Liturgies conventionally employed. — It is usual to differ- 
entiate between the liturgical and the non-liturgical churches. 
There is a convenience in the distinction, but it must be 
recognized that it is only one of degree. All churches employ 
ritual. What is known as the *^ Order of Worship" in the 
most unconventional ecclesiastical bodies is yet quite definitely 
conventional, while the forms employed in the administration 
of the ordinances and in the marriage and funeral services 
are definitely set by custom. Even such simple services as the 
prayer-meeting and the young people's meeting have an 
almost unvarying order, which practically amounts to ritual. 
It must be kept in mind that the recitation of the Lord's 
Prayer, the responsive reading of the Psalter, the singing of the 
Doxology, and indeed of all congregational hymns, the bowing 
in prayer, the collection of the offerings of the people, the 
reading of the Scripture, the sermon itself, and the bene- 
diction are as definitely liturgical forms as the prayers which 
are printed in prayer-books. It is not. then a question 
whether a church should employ a liturgy, but rather what 
liturgical forms may be most satisfactorily used for a 
particular congregation. Pattison in Public Worship has 
discussed the various elements most helpfully from the 
standpoint of the congregational churches. 

The most serious criticism to be offered of the conven- 
tional church service is that it is so little congregational. The 
significant emphasis which the reformed churches put upon the 
sermon has thrown that element into such prominence that 
the minister is thought of, and often called, the ''preacher," 
and the congregation is thought of, and often called, the 
''audience," while the general name for the room in which 
public worship is held is the "auditorium." An able preacher 
recently wrote an article with the title "As to Preliminaries." 
He meant everything that happened before he began to preach. 
The congregation is still allowed to sing two or three hymns, 
"omitting the third verse," but the minister prays, offers the 



620 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

confession, and reads the Scripture, besides preaching the 
sermon, and the choir takes the larger part of the music 
to itself. There is needed an emphasis on congregational 
worship. 

Eclectic liturgies. — This need has given rise to various 
endeavors to ^'enrich the service." Some have stigmatized 
this effort as an addition of liturgical frills. Others have said 
that the minister and the choir were the only persons inter- 
ested in the enrichment. 

Of course a generation that has been trained to think of 
a church service as consisting of a sermon with some opening 
exercises will not easily appreciate the elements of worship. 
The problem before the modern minister is to use such 
liturgical forms as shall actually promote in his people the 
mood of worship. He must study his own congregation* He 
must experiment. He must particularly study the technique 
of ministration. He has the right to feel that all the litur- 
gical riches of the ages are open to his use. They belong 
to no section of Christianity but to the church universal. 
To employ the General Confession in a church of Puritan 
ancestry is not to add a liturgical frill, nor is it to negate the 
protest of the Puritans. It is simply to realize that some 
things which some found hurtful to true worship at a certain 
stage of the progress of the church have regained their use- 
fulness in this day when ecclesiastical conflict is abated. 

The minister should be very familiar with the Book of 
Common Prayer and with the Book of Common Worship of 
the Presbyterian church. The Psalter lends itself peculiarly 
to the valuable congregational practice of antiphonal chanting 
or reading; but for this purpose it must be properly edited. 
We are under no obligation to use psalms in their entirety 
when portions of them will better suit our liturgical needs. 
Various attempts have been made to edit a church-book of 
responsive readings, but a thoroughly satisfactory arrange- 
ment still remains to be made. 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 621 

One difficulty which confronts the modern minister is the 
fact that the worship of the church has been developed upon 
the basis of the individualistic religion of the salvation of the 
soul, almost the only social element in it referring to the evan- 
gelization of mankind. How shall he pray for the great social 
needs so apparent in our day? Evidently we need a new 
devotional literature inspired by the social passion. Rausch- 
enbusch has made a most beautiful endeavor in this field in 
his For God and the People: Prayers of the Social Awakening. 

4. HYMNOLOGY 

The history of the hymns.— Music, chant, song, have 
always been an important element of worship. Musical 
rhythm is one of the most potent means of exciting emotion. 
Elemental feelings are stirred by accented music of the drum- 
beat quality, and the dirge with its moanlike character has 
ever produced sadness and depression. The developed 
musical sense responds emotionally and in characteristic 
fashion to the various types of music. The wedding of words 
and music when each is interpretative of the other naturally 
heightens the emotional quality of the exercise. 

Christianity inherited the Psalms from the Jewish church 
and doubtless took over the simple chants in which they were 
rendered. But while appreciating these noble expressions of 
religion, the new faith desired more definite ascriptions of 
praise and expression of faith, aspiration, hope, joy. It is 
thought that there are fragments of Christian song in the 
New Testament. Very early appeared the ''Gloria in Excel- 
sis," the '' Gloria Patri," the "Ter Sanctus," the ''Benedicite," 
the ''Te Deum," together with the Nativity songs in the 
Gospel of Luke. Then followed the noble hymns of the Greek 
and Latin churches, of which the latter are especially fine; 
then the wonderful and extensive German hymnody; then 
the French, EngHsh, and Scottish psalmody; then from the 
middle of the seventeenth century the great development of 



622 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

English hymnody. Duf&eld has two scholarly works, Latin 
Hymns and English Hymns. The monumental Dictionary 
of Hymnology by Julian is the best treatment of the whole 
subject, while Breed, The History and Use of Hymns and Hymn 
Tunes, is an accurate and interesting popular treatment 
(see bibliography at close of this section) . 

The survival of the fittest. — It would be rash to endeavor 
to estimate the number of Christian hymns that have been 
written. Charles , Wesley wrote over six thousand, Fanny 
Crosby over three thousand. Probably not far less than a 
quarter of a million hymns have actually been written and 
sung in Europe and America. But Benson has written an 
excellent and appreciative little book on the thirty-two best 
hymns ! A vast number were forgotten in their own genera- 
tion. The same process that preserves the best painting, 
sculpture, poetry, drama, has saved the best hymns from 
dying with the mass that were not worth saving. If com- 
mercial considerations, denominational pride, and fortuitous 
interest could be eliminated from the consideration of the 
subject, the conclusion would be that it is doubtful whether 
there are more than four hundred hymns in English that are 
worthy to be kept for the use of the Christian church. Most 
hymnbooks are far too large. Breed, Benson, Pratt, and 
Dickinson have suggestive discussions on this point (see 
bibHography at close of this section). 

Modem hymns. — The lyric is naturally very personal. 
The finest Christian hymns breathe the aspiration of the indi- 
vidual soul for communion with God, for cleansing, for sal- 
vation, for the blessedness of the life beyond. To be sure, 
the singer realizes his representative capacity — ^he is also 
singing for his brethren. But the values expressed are pre- 
dominantly pietistic. Where shall we find hymns to express 
our social passion and hope? It is manifestly not easy to 
put sociology into lyric form; and of course that would be the 
last thing to be desired. Hymnody always fails when it 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 623 

becomes hortatory and propagandist. But what the great 
missionary hymns have done for the passion of evangeHsm, 
hymns of the social awakening ought to do for the passion 
of social justice and love. A new collection entitled Hymns 
of the Kingdom has sought to bring together the best that are 
available of these lyrics. It is clear that the singer who will 
voice our new hopes and prayers will have a mission. 

The gospel songs. — The very effective religious work of 
Moody, with that of Bliss and Sankey, produced the gospel 
songs. They have a certain likeness to the popular songs 
of the stage and of the street, which are so extraordinarily 
interesting and so transitory. They caught the ear of the 
people. The music was easy, requiring no effort. There was 
generally some simple and obvious imagery which appealed 
to some common sentiment. The connection of the gospel 
songs with the significant evangelistic work of Moody, from 
which so many thousands of persons drew their deepened 
religious interest, naturally gave to them a peculiar sanctity. 
But they wore out. It was necessary to find new ones to take 
their places. The evangelists who followed in the wake of 
Moody had each his own singer who wrote and published 
gospel songs. The business became exceedingly lucrative. 
The commercial motive, which hitherto had had little to do 
with hymnody, became very prominent. Today we are 
flooded with songbooks filled with cheap, sentimental, often 
irreverent, and generally undesirable, hymns, whether con- 
sidered from the devotional, the poetic, or the musical point 
of view. They are sung in evening services, in Sunday schools, 
in young people's meetings, in church prayer-meetings — 
the great and noble hymns being confined to the Sunday morn- 
ing service. The result is that the hymns which ought to be 
the permanent religious possession of the people are not learned 
and are not known. 

Perhaps the gospel songs have their place. Breed gives 
a very fair general estimate of their value. Probably the 



624 GUIDE TO STUt)Y OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

church would be the gainer today if a score of the better 
gospel songs were to be retained and all the rest forgotten. 

Present tendencies and needs. — The last decade has seen 
a decided improvement in church hymnals. Most of them 
are still too large. The hymnbook is not the place for the 
documents of the history of hymnology. We should gain by 
the elimination of every hymn that is not a distinctly noble 
religious lyric. Some of the best evangelistic hymns, carefully 
selected, are now printed in the best hymnals, and that is well. 
There is still room for a larger number of hymns of the social 
awakening. Above all, we need to begin singing the best 
hymns in childhood and youth, and we need to use our great 
choruses in conventions and evangelistic meetings for leading 
the people into the singing of noble words, set to worthy 
music, that shall exalt religion in their lives and open the 
springs of the deeper religious emotions. 

Literature. — For psychological works see under "Psychology of 
Religion." The following are of value: *Charles Cuthbert Hall and 
others, Christian Worship (New York: Scribner, 1897), ten lectures, in 
which the liturgies and forms of the various churches are discussed by 
representative men — an excellent conspectus; *Pattison, Public Worship 
(Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1900), a practical discussion 
of forms suitable for bodies of the congregational order; Hoyt, Public 
Worship for Non-Liturgical Churches (New York: George H. Doran & 
Co., 191 1), similar to Pattison; N. J. Burton, In Pulpit and Parish, 
Yale Lectures, which cover the whole field of pastoral duty, having much 
that is valuable on the subject of worship; Alexander Maclaren, Pulpit 
Prayers (New York: Hodder & Stoughton), prayers stenographi- 
cally reported without the knowledge of the minister, revealing the 
possibilities of free prayer; Oswald Dykes, The Christian Minister and 
His Duties (Edinburgh: Clark, 1908), which treats of the minister as 
leader in worship; Washington Gladden, The Christian Pastor and the 
Working Church, chap, vi, "Pulpit and Altar" (New York: Scribner, 
1898, 1906), *Breed, The History and Use of Hymns and Hymn Tunes 
(New York: Revell, 1903), a popular and very satisfactory historical 
and critical discussion of the Christian hymn — a practical handbook 
for the leader of public worship; Benson, The Best Church Hymns 
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1899), a brief discussion of the 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 625 

thirty-two best English hymns; Duffield, English Hymns (New York: 
Funk & Wagnalls, 1894), a critical treatment in alphabetical order of all 
the better-known hymns; Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, 2d ed. 
(London: Murray, 1908), valuable for its information upon a vast 
number of hymns; Pratt, Musical Ministries in the Church (New York: 
Revell, 1901), a little book dealing with the problem most helpfully 
as it concerns the minister; *Dickinson, Music in the History of the 
Western Church (New York: Scribner, 1902), an excellent historical 
study of the development of music in connection with worship, culminat- 
ing in a discussion of the problems of church music in America; Benson, 
The English Hymn, Its Development and Use in Worship (New York: 
Doran, 191 5), a masterly study and the best treatise on the subject. 

VI. MISSIONS 

I. DEFINITION AND SCOPE 

It would be difficult to draw a line of distinction clearly 
between organized efforts for social betterment and that 
specialized activity ^comprehended under the term "missions." 
So far as the former are directly undertaken by the church they 
are likely to be intimately connected with activities that are 
more definitely recognized as missionary. Wherever the 
church is the chief socializing agency of the community, it 
will be under obligation to engage in many forms of social en- 
deavor which in more developed communities are undertaken 
by other voluntary organizations or by the state. In foreign 
lands, for example, the missionary enterprise embraces all 
forms of philanthropy and education, including even industrial 
training, hospital, dispensary, and medical care, even some- 
times the organization of industry. The missionary is con- 
cerned, not merely with a religious propaganda, but with an 
extension of all the social and spiritual values which in its 
best expression Christianity represents. If Christianity may 
be understood in that broad sense, we may define this branch 
of practical theology as a study of the conduct of the propaga- 
tion of Christianity through external initiative in communities 
and countries where Christianity does not exist or where the 



626 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

local Christian forces are insufficient for self -sustenance and 
development. 

2. FIELDS OF MISSIONARY ACTIVITY 

The church as an institution of modern life has a definite 
economic basis. Of course it is a religious community and not 
a building, but inevitably it must have a building, and this 
involves care and upkeep. To be effective the church must 
have a professional ministry, which must be financially sup- 
ported. The community to which the church immediately 
ministers would naturally provide the necessary funds for 
these expenses. Where for any reason this is impossible a 
missionary field exists. 

Densely settled communities. — In modern cities the 
poor live closely packed together in certain sections, apart 
from the well-to-do. Whenever a family rises above the 
poverty line the first idea is to flee from t,he crowded, dirty, 
unhealthful, uninteresting abodes of the poor and to seek 
residence in a better neighborhood. It is not expected that 
these densely populated districts will support their own 
schools, hospitals, fire-stations; these are provided from the 
common funds in accordance with the needs, not in propor- 
tion to the taxes. The same principle adapted to the volun- 
tary organization of the churches is involved in the mission 
church. 

The utter inability of the poor to maintain even an in- 
expensive religious organization and the want of initiative in a 
shifting population alike demand that the church in a densely 
settled district shall be maintained from without. This may 
be done by means of endowment, as in the case of Trinity 
Parish in New York, or by the direct appropriations of a 
denomination, as in the case of the Labor Temple, supported 
in New York by the Presbyterians. The activities of such a 
church may be those already discussed in the consideration 
of the so-called ''institutional" church. 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 627 

Foreign populations in America. — The rapid immigration 
of peoples from all over the world into urban and rural dis- 
tricts in America has brought about a special religious need. 
In many cases these people come from countries where the 
state-supported churches have given them little training in 
voluntary religious organization. They are thus ill-adapted 
to form self-supporting religious congregations. In some 
places the state churches were part of the Old World authority, 
which the freedom-loving immigrant was glad to throw off in 
the New World. There exists then an actual antagonism to 
religion. Again, state religion, which may be very efficacious 
in holding children in the religious life and which normally 
may keep them attached to the church in their maturer years, 
has seldom manifested great power in winning those who have 
fallen away from religion. There are needed the fervor of the 
evangelistic appeal and the social attractions of a church 
adapted to the community situation. In the case of the 
Roman and Greek Catholic populations there is the added 
obligation to missionary effort, in that the Protestant feels 
called upon to win these people from their superstitions to an 
evangelical faith which is related to the modern world. 

Naturally there is no possibility of self-initiating nor of 
self-supporting religious effort in such conditions as these. 
The American church must provide a church home for the 
foreigner until he has reached the point where he is able 
and willing to carry it on for himself. Where the immigrant 
lives in the cities the problem of missionary activity in his 
behalf is often complicated with that already discussed, as 
many foreigners are crowded in the poorer quarters. 

Sparsely settled communities. — The United States taken 
as a whole is still one of the most thinly populated regions of 
the civilized world. Small towns many miles apart, with farm 
houses at considerable distances from one another, are to be 
found all over the country. Moreover, there is a constant 
effort to get away to more remote places. The history of the 



628 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

United States has been a history of the pioneer pressing into 
new regions. Cheap land has ever been the lure that has called 
him from the more settled parts of the country. While there 
is a sense in which there is no longer a frontier, yet in a very 
true sense there are many frontiers. Every city has its far- 
flung line of newly opened suburbs. All the western states 
have large sections of newly opened land. 

What of the pioneer's religion ? One of the glorious chap- 
ters of American history is the story of how the pioneer took 
his religion with him. Without waiting for any missionary 
organization he often opened a Sunday school and set up his 
altar in the log house as one of the first social institutions 
of the new community. But this was not always the case, 
nor when it was the case was it adequate. The building of a 
church and the support of the minister are tasks too heavy for 
the new community, struggling to get on its feet. A most 
natural field of fraternal effort has always been found in the 
frontier towns, in the country villages, in the new suburbs, 
in the mining camps and logging camps, and wherever the 
people were too few or too feeble to initiate and support 
their own religious organization. 

The Indians and the negroes. — The segregated condition 
of the Indians on the reservations has been an appeal to Chris- 
tian churches to make these "wards of the nation" also wards 
of the church. Christian schools and churches have been 
established by the various denominations, therefore, among 
most of the tribes. As the Indian comes into our American 
life it will still be the desire of the Christian churches to help 
him to share in our highest religious values. 

The emancipation of the slaves suddenly opened to the 
churches of the North an opportunity which they felt called 
upon to meet. Education had not been permitted to the 
negroes, and they had for the most part conducted their own 
religious services with a strange combination of Christian 
conceptions and African practices. The medicine-man had 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 629 

become the pastor. It was felt that these liberated children 
must be given the Christian education and guidance which 
would enable them to become self-directing. Unhappily the 
bitterness growing out of the sectional strife prevented the 
proper co-operation between the northern and southern whites 
which alone would have made such a missionary work thor- 
oughly effective. There is still need for many readjustments 
in this direction, but the fact remains that the ten millions 
of negroes in the North and South greatly need the sympa- 
thetic help of the white churches, and they constitute a proper 
field for missionary activity. 

Latin, Greek, and oriental Christian populations. — There 
are those who consider the non-Protestant forms of Chris- 
tianity better adapted to the peoples among which they 
exist than our more rationalized Protestantism. Probably 
the majority of Protestants who are interested in missions 
at all are profoundly convinced that the religions of Latin 
America and of the Christian populations of the Turkish and 
Russian empires are utterly unsatisfactory from the ethical, 
social, and spiritual points of view. A great system of 
Christian schools has been established in the Turkish empire, 
and an enlarging educational and evangelistic endeavor is 
being prosecuted in Cuba, Mexico, South America, and in 
Italy itself. These missionary efforts do not always aim at 
proselytism, but very often, as particularly among the 
oriental Christians, the endeavor is to vitalize the old faith 
and to bring the people to an appreciation of the nobler Chris- 
tian values, even though they still remain within their ancient 
communions. 

Non-Christian countries. — Christianity began as a great 
proclamation of hope to a pagan world. The enthusiasm of 
propagandism continued until all Europe was nominally 
Christianized. When the New World was discovered, and 
when the Far East came into the ken of the church, the old 
enthusiasm was revived in the Jesuit movement, and later in 



630 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

that of the Moravians. The modern missionary enterprise 
belongs especially to the nineteenth century. The church 
awoke to a sense of responsibility for the souls of men which 
were beheved to be lost. The idea of securing salvation for 
the heathen world captured the imagination of the church 
and called forth heroic missionaries. The actual work of the 
missionaries revealed deeper needs. It was found that a 
fundamental educational enterprise must be undertaken. The 
pitiable lack of the simplest medical care opened the way for a 
great ministry of healing. Thus schools and hospitals were 
established in lands where nothing of the kind had ever 
existed. A new missionary motive developed, that of shar- 
ing with less fortunate peoples the blessings of the Christian 
civilization as well as the Christian faith and hope. 

In the last generation a further movement has taken place. 
The world, commercially, has become practically one. The 
missionary is not the sole representative of the civilized peoples. 
There is also the trader, the mechanic, the engineer, often the 
man of science, and, unhappily, always the soldier sent with 
aggressive intent. The Christian church no longer looks 
upon a heathen world perishing in ignorance of the gospel, 
but upon a non-Christian world exposed to all the influences 
of our commerce and diplomacy, with accompaniments of vice, 
chicanery, fraud, tyranny. It is not a question as to whether 
the non-Christian world shall have any contact with the 
Christian world, but whether it shall have contact with its 
best as well as with its bad, its indifferent, and its worst. The 
great modern missionary enthusiasm is to help the peoples 
of the earth to come to their best with the sympathetic help 
of the churches of Christian lands. 

3. FORMS OF MISSIONARY ORGANIZATION 

The various denominations have different means of carry- 
ing on these wide activities. Those that are more centrally 
organized carry them on by means of boards which are respon- 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 631 

sible to the central authority, but which exercise large 
independence an account of the diversity of the work 
to be done. The less centrally organized bodies have 
special societies for the different phases of missionary 
activity. 

City mission societies or boards. — The missionary prob- 
lems of the large city are so definite that there is almost always 
a local organization charged with the responsibility of studying 
those problems and of providing a means of carrying out an 
adequate missionary policy within the metropolitan area. 
There is generally an executive officer, the superintendent of 
city missions, who promotes the collection of money from the 
churches and the operation of the missions in his territory. 
Sometimes churches are entirely supported in needy districts. 
Sometimes grants are made to assist a semi-independent 
church. Sometimes new enterprises, churches, or Sunday 
schools are initiated by the city-mission organization. The 
theory of the organization is that there shall be no community 
without a church and no church without adequate means 
to carry on its work effectively. 

State mission societies, conventions, or boards. — The 
next territorial division above the city depends upon the form 
of church organization. It may be the diocese, the synod, 
the conference, the convention, and any of these may or may 
not be coterminous with the state. However, there is usually a 
society or board which is responsible for missionary activity 
within some such large territory. The great cities within its 
area will generally be exempt from its operation, having their 
own metropolitan organization. But the extension and sus- 
tenance of the church in the smaller cities and towns, in the 
country places, and in the new communities will be its con- 
cern. The money will be raised within the territory — state, 
diocese, or whatever its name. There will be an executive 
officer whose duty will be the superintendence of these 
activities. The theory here again is that there shall not be 



632 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

any community without a church, nor any church without 
the means to carry on its work efficiently. 

National or home mission societies or boards. — Certain 
denominations are unified throughout the entire country. 
Several have still the two main divisions that were brought 
about by the slavery controversy. The Episcopal and 
Congregational churches, the Disciples, and many smaller 
denominations are national; their home missionary work is 
therefore coterminous with the United States. The Metho- 
dists have a northern and southern denomination, the former 
regarding its jurisdiction as practically national, although to 
a great extent limiting its southern activities to negro work, 
the latter belonging definitely to the southern states, and con- 
cerned with church extension and sustenance in that section. 
The Presbyterians have a somewhat similar condition. The 
Baptists are one denomination, but have a northern and a 
southern convention, whose territories slightly overlap. The 
northern convention does not undertake missionary work in 
the South except among the negroes. 

While these various differences exist, there is always a 
denominational society or board concerned with the entire 
missionary activity of the denomination in the home land. 
There are usually several executive secretaries, and the 
denominational territory is generally divided into large 
divisions for the purposes of the collection of money, the mis- 
sionary education and stimulus of the churches, and the super- 
vision of the missionary activities. 

Foreign-mission societies or boards. ^Almost every de- 
nomination is actively engaged in the foreign-mission enter- 
prise. Several denominations exist as such only by reason of 
their missionary interests, these great activities having created 
the denominational consciousness. Even among the centrally 
governed bodies the missionary undertakings are the supreme 
object of the denominational organization. The active direc- 
tion of missions may be intrusted to the highest officials of the 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 633 

church, there may be a special board appointed or elected for 
the purpose, or there may be foreign-mission societies which 
have been developed, in and through which the denomination 
expresses itself. 

Whatever the form of organization, it has generally at least 
two phases. One is concerned with the missionary education 
and stimulus of the churches in America, the raising of the 
great income necessary for the enterprise, the selection of th^ 
young men and women who are to be missionaries, and to some 
extent the supervision of their training. The other is con- 
cerned with the actual operation of the missions in foreign 
lands. This involves a study of the conditions in the various 
countries, the appointment of the men and women to the 
various stations, the decisions as to the kind of work to be 
done, the amount of equipment to be provided, the buildings 
to be erected, etc., the arrangement of furloughs, the care of 
missionaries who may be ill or who may need to return home. 
In short, it is a complicated business enterprise requiring great 
skill for its economical and efficient prosecution. 

4. PRINCIPLES AND PROBLEMS OF MODERN MISSIONS 

TheologicaL — It is becoming increasingly clear, especially 
in the foreign-mission field itself, that it is a vain task to 
endeavor to reproduce for peoples of traditions differing from 
our own the religious forms, doctrinal statements, and 
ecclesiastical names which belong to our special religious 
heritage. We no longer think of salvation as dependent upon 
the acceptance of certain redemptive facts. We are con- 
cerned with a religious experience of faith, dependence, and 
love toward the God of righteousness and love, whom we 
know in Jesus — an experience which shall function ethically 
in human relations. What may such an experience be for a 
Chinese disciple of Confucius, for a Japanese Buddhist, for 
a Hindu, for a Moslem, for a Congo fetish- worshiper ? Evi- 
dently these questions are to be answered in the light of the 



634 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

most careful and sympathetic study of the particular people, 
with an appreciation of the best in morals and religion that 
they have produced, and with a broad realization that our 
Western Christianity is a specialized type, and is not an 
unchangeable norm for all peoples and times. The great 
simplification which the modern theological point of view 
brings to the missionary is ably discussed by Macintosh 
in an article entitled ''The New Christianity and World- 
Conversion," American Journal of Theology, XVIII (July 
and October, 1914), 337-54 and 553-70. 

Sociological. — Our Christianity partakes of the genius of 
our Western democratic social organization, unless indeed it 
still belongs to the aristocratic organization of feudalism. 
How far is it adapted to the social organization of another 
people? Is the church, whether it be episcopal, presbyte- 
rian, or congregational in its government, a natural form of 
social organization for Africans, for Hindus, for Chinese ? Is 
the community life of the American missionary family a 
helpful example in those different lands ? Is the American 
boarding-school system, or the day school, whether or not 
coeducational, the best means of educating all people ? What 
shall be our attitude in the face of such a practice as polygamy ? 
Shall a man put away all his wives save one as a condition of 
entering the church? How shall we meet such social con- 
ditions as foot-binding (now, to be sure, scarcely a problem) ; 
the marriage of children without their own consent; the 
veneration of ancestors, which is regarded as fiHal piety; the 
worship of the emperor, which is regarded as patriotism; 
the festival, which is a pageantry expressive of race life and 
which yet may have undesirable elements ? Evidently there is 
a mass of problems requiring the most tactful and scientific 
consideration. We cannot pull up a race by the roots. We 
cannot separate it from its social heritage. We do not want 
to produce slavish imitations of our foreign customs. The 
people must continue in their own social process with the 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 635 

new urge, motive, and hope of the essential Christian 
spirit. 

EducationaL — Missionary work both at home and abroad 
has been increasingly educational. The missionary found 
very soon that he must concern himself with the youth. Ele- 
mentary schools are to be found in practically all missions. 
Secondary schools of good grade have followed wherever pos- 
sible, and a number of good colleges afford advanced educa- 
tional opportunities under Christian auspices. An insistent 
missionary problem is that of the adaptation of educational 
procedure to the experience and needs of the various peoples. 
We are only beginning to learn this principle in our own 
education. Just as we formerly supposed that religion was 
religion, so we also thought that education was education. 
Each would have been expressed in terms of a certain content. 
People were to be saved by accepting our theology and to be 
educated by learning what we had learned. Thus today the 
Sunday-school literature which is prepared for Americans is 
translated and used, with its Western illustrations and sug- 
gestions, all over the world. American hymns are translated 
regardless of the applicability of the symbols and imagery to 
ano ther people . The tunes are carried over wi thou t considering 
whether they accord with the musical genius of other peoples. 

Education is a process of progressive socialization. It 
must take account of the habitat, the inheritance, the social 
conditions of a people. What is the best education for an 
Indian on a western reservation, for the negro boys and girls 
of the South, for the Japanese in a Christian academy, for a 
low-caste Hindu in a village of India, for the native pastors 
who are to lead their people in the various lands ? These ques- 
tions cannot be answered offhand by the simple transference 
of the corresponding grade of an American school. Edu- 
cation must have relation to social experience. These matters 
are being seriously considered by modern students of missions. 
They were much discussed in the Edinburgh Conference, and 



636 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

further investigations are being made which will doubtless 
result in large improvement. 

The education of the missionary himself is a most interest- 
ing problem. Out of the Edinburgh Conference, which gave 
great attention to the matter, have come some marked 
reorganizations of curriculum in the theological, seminaries. 
Historical, psychological, sociological, pedagogical, and lin- 
guistic studies must be included in the missionary preparation. 
Above all, there must be an understanding of the modem 
world in which the missionary church and community is 
to live its life. The divinity schools will most naturally 
continue to give this preparation, especially those that are 
connected with universities. The training of women for 
home and foreign missionary service has been undertaken 
by special training schools, and these are developing their 
standards in a very satisfactory manner. 

Ecclesiastical. — ^A common impulse has led all denomina- 
tions to undertake the various forms of missionary work. 
For the most part there has been little zeal of denominational 
propaganda, but rather the larger desire for the extension of 
the Christian faith. In home and city missions, where there 
was a definite possibility of the establishment of churches 
that would- become self-supporting and in time contributory, 
the element of rivalry and competition inevitably obtruded 
itself. In missions that were not likely to add to the denomi- 
national vigor and prestige this was not so marked. But in 
any case serious overlapping inevitably developed, while 
great gaps existed where no Christian work was carried on at 
all. Long before the problem of denominational comity arose 
at home the foreign missionaries themselves felt its impera- 
tive necessity. And they have been constantly in advance 
of the home church in furthering this needed reform. Among 
the great foreign missionary boards the world has been fairly 
divided, with the purpose that a given denomination shall, 
as far as possible, be given full responsibihty for a given terri- 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY ^ 637 

tory. Some difficult problems arise in regard to ecclesiastical 
procedure. Manifestly, if one denomination is in sole pos- 
session of a certain region it ought to receive members of 
other denominations into full membership in its churches. 
This matter is still to be worked out. 

Comity has proceeded more slowly at home than abroad. 
The wretched rivalry of home-mission churches in small 
places and in frontier districts has come to be recognized as a 
shame to Christianity. The economic waste, the inefficiency, 
the un- Christian spirit which has resulted from this often 
bitter competition are becoming clear. In a few cities inter- 
denominational councils have been appointed with the re- 
sponsibility of deciding where there is room for new churches, 
and of apportioning the new territory fairly among the 
denominations. There are always, however, certain intense 
sectarians who refuse to abide by such decisions. Much still 
remains to be done in this direction. 

Beyond comity is co-operation. At this point again the 
foreign field is in the lead. In^everal localities, notably in 
Western China, an interdenominational university has been 
started. When one denomination is unable to send out mis- 
sionary applicants, other boards are sending them without 
asking them to change their denominational affiliations. If 
the foreign missionaries were left to themselves there would 
probably soon be an end of real denominationalism altogether. 
The matter is more difficult at home, where vested interests 
are at stake, but progress is being made. The leading divinity 
schools are becoming interdenominational or undenomina- 
tional. Certain forms of missionary work are supported by 
several boards in co-operation. Evangelistic activities which 
are essentially missionary in their character are generally 
interconfessional. The problem in its practical phases is 
vital and ever more insistent. 

One of the greatest of all foreign missionary problems is 
that which has come to be called technically '^ devolution," 



638 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

that is, the transfer of ecclesiastical control from the mission 
board in America and its representative missionary to the 
native church itself. An interesting study on this subject 
has been made by Fleming in a Doctor's thesis (University 
of Chicago) on Missionary Devolution in India. The Japanese 
church has already asserted its independence. Fundamentally 
this is more than a mere matter of administrative control; 
it involves the question whether there is any sort of propriety 
in transplanting Western denominationalism to foreign lands. 
If one believes that a certain form of church polity and ritual 
has been divinely ordained to be observed everywhere and at 
all times, manifestly there is nothing to do but to impose it 
upon all converts. To those who do not find a hard-and-fast 
ecclesiasticism in the New Testament, but rather a glorious 
way of life taking upon itself certain convenient external 
forms, there will be no impropriety in allowing Japanese, 
Chinese, or Indian genius to find for itself the vehicles through 
which the spirit of Jesus may express itself and institutionalize 
itself in those lands. 

Literature. — ^J. L. Barton, Educational Missions (New York: Student 
Volunteer Movement, 19 13). (Discusses in popular form different 
aspects and problems of education in the mission field and shows its 
value as a part of the missionary enterprise. One of the best books on 
this subject.) E. W. Capen, Sociological Progress in Mission Lands 
(New York: Revell, 1914). (A study of missionary work by a trained 
sociologist. Treats the problems met in the mission field and shows 
the progress that has been made in the removal of ignorance, inefiiciency, 
and poverty. The book is a convincing statement of the constructive 
power of Christian ideals.) Louise Creighton, Missions, Their Rise and 
Development (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 191 2 [Home University 
Library Series]). (A small volume intended for popular reading but 
containing much valuable historical and descriptive material. A good 
book to recommend to those who have only a slight interest in missions.) 
J. S. Dennis, The Modern Call of Missions (New York: Revell, 1913). 
(Consists of a review of some articles formerly published in different 
periodicals. Discusses especially the relation of missions to diplomacy, 
national evolution, and commerce. The chapters are disconnected and 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 639 

make no pretense of thoroughness. The book is of special value because 
of the light it throws upon the governmental aspects of missionary work.) 
George S. Eddy, The New Era in Asia (New York: Missionary Education 
Movement, 1914). (Gives an interesting account of the religious 
awakening that is taking place in Asia. Full of striking facts gleaned 
from the author's own investigations. An inspirational book by a 
noted missionary leader.) *W. H. P. Faunce, Social Aspects of Foreign 
Missions (New York: Missionary Education Movement, 1914). (One 
of the best missionary books of recent years. Written by a man in 
thorough sympathy with mission work in its broadest sense. Gives inter- 
esting facts about the social achievements of missionaries and discusses 
the enlarging function of the modern missionary.) A. E. Garvie, The 
Missionary Obligation and Modern Thought (London: Hodder & Stough- 
ton, 1914). (Deals with the changes which have occurred in modern 
thought concerning the Bible, theology, and non-Christian religions, and 
shows the bearing of this changed viewpoint upon foreign missions. 
Written from the standpoint of a conservative scholar not in sympathy 
with present liberal tendencies.) I. T. Headland, Some Byproducts 
of Missions (Cincinnati: Jennings & Graham, 191 2). (A popular pres- 
entation of the indirect results of missions. A stimulating book that 
enlarges one's conception of the missionary enterprise.) W. S. Hooton, 
The Missionary Campaign (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1912). 
(An elementary book dealing with the theory and principles of missions. 
Useful as a popular discussion of the subject in a small compass.) Shailer 
Mathews, The Individual and the Social Gospel (New York: Missionary 
Education Movement, 1914). (Develops the thesis that the gospel must 
be a social gospel, because there is no such thing as an individual inde- 
pendent of social conditions.) *J. R. Mott, The Present World Situation 
(New York: Student Volunteer Movement, 19 14). (Discusses the 
need of statesmanship in missions, the problems involved in the meeting 
of the East and the West, and the necessity of spiritual power in the 
missionary enterprise.) Scott Nearing, Social Religion (New York: 
Macmillan, 1913). (Emphasizes the social viewpoint of Jesus and 
points out the need of a social gospel to regenerate modern society. 
Discusses definite social problems, such as poverty, unemployment, 
child labor, and the discontent of the masses, with special reference to the 
responsibility of the Christian church. Popular in treatment and 
very suggestive.) C. Stelzle, American Social and Religious Conditions 
(New York: Revell, 191 2). (A study of the facts and conditions of 
present-day society in America. Discusses various aspects of industrial 
problems and points out the part that the church can play in a program 



640 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

of social betterment.) H. C. Vedder, The Gospel of Jesus and the Prob- 
lems of Democracy (New York: Macmillan, 1914). (A criticism of the 
church for failure to lay emphasis upon the problem of economic injustice. 
Has a bearing on home- and city-mission policies.) C. H. Robinson, 
History of Christian Missions (New York: Scribner, 191 5). (Indis- 
pensable for a thorough scientific survey of the history. Full statistics 
are brought up to 1 9 1 5 . This work deals only slightly with problems and 
principles.) C. H. Robinson, The Interpretation of the Character of 
Christ to Non-Christian Races (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 19 10). 
(Endeavors to show how the Christian message may be presented in an 
understanding way to people of other faiths. Rather conservative in 
viewpoint. Discusses the best ideals of some of the oriental religions.) 
*R. E. Speer, Christianity and the Nations (New York: Revell, 19 10). 
(A comprehensive treatment of the theory and practice of missions, 
including such themes as the basis, aims, and methods of missions, the 
problems of the native church, Christianity and the non-Christian 
religions, etc. An excellent and suggestive work.) *World Missionary 
Conference, 9 vols. (New York: Revell, 19 10). (Contains full reports of 
the commissions appointed to investigate all phases of modern missions. 
A mine of information for missionary addresses. Full of facts gleaned 
from the experiences of many missionaries.) 

Magazines: International Review of Missions, J. H. Oldham, editor 
(i Charlotte Square, Edinburgh). (A magazine devoted to the scientific 
study of missionary principles and practice. Contains articles on vari- 
ous aspects of missions by authors of wide reputation. The bibliography 
and reviews of current missionary literature make it invaluable for the 
student of missions.) Missionary Review of the World, D. L. Pierson, 
editor (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co.). (A missionary magazine 
filled with fresh facts from the field. Inspirational in character, but 
represents a conservative viewpoint. Contains valuable book reviews 
and excellent suggestions for missionary meetings.) 

VII. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
I. DEFINITION AND SCOPE 

Under the title " catechetics " practical theology has 
always concerned itself with the problems of the religious 
education of the young. As that name implies, it has been a 
study of the means by which the fundamental doctrines of the 
church and the social duties of its members might be made 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 641 

clear to children. The principal method employed until 
recent times was the catechism, with illustrations, explanatory 
sermons, etc. It has always been regarded as the duty of the 
pastor to supervise the religious training of the children of 
his parish, and personally to prepare them for church member- 
ship. The development of the Sunday school somewhat 
enlarged the task of practical theology, but until lately the 
educational work of the church has not been a matter of very 
serious theological consideration. In the curriculum of the 
theological seminary of twenty years ago a few lectures on the 
pastor's relation to the Sunday school covered all that was 
done in this field. 

It is now coming to be recognized that religious education 
is to be so broadly conceived that it will cover a very large 
part of the function of the church. Faunce, in The Educational 
Ideal in the Ministry, very definitely presents this considera- 
tion as fundamental to the effective modern church. 

Religious education considered as a science is a study of 
the developing moral-religious experience in order to determine 
the principles of its healthiest growth, and the methods, 
materials, and activities by which that growth may be fur- 
thered. While a theoretical difference does exist between 
morality and religion, practically they cannot be separated. 

2. THE HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

This is a vast field. It must suffice simply to indicate 
the ground to be covered. 

Primitive religious education. — There is little education, 
properly so called, among primitive peoples. There is rather 
a training in the technique of living which is acquired by imi- 
tation. At puberty, however, among many peoples, elaborate 
and significant initiation ceremonies, generally of a religious 
character, take place. There is often some body of instruc- 
tion given to the youth by the elders; sometimes the secrets 
of the tribe are then revealed. Recent scholars have called 



642 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

attention to the significant parallel between these practices 
and the confirmation ritual or the conversion experience, at 
the period of early adolescence, in Christian churches. Ames 
has discussed the subject in The Psychology of Religious Experi- 
ence (Boston: Houghton, MifHin Co., 1910). 

Hebrew religious education. — The Hebrew elementary- 
school system probably arose shortly before, or shortly after, 
the time of Christ. There were no ''schools of the prophets " 
in early Israel. Religion was a training developed by the 
sacrifices, festivals, and customs, and later by the synagogue 
service, with its prayers, scriptures, and instruction. The 
Hebrew life at its best was deeply religious, and the child 
grew into it as his inheritance. 

Literature.— Th.Q article ' 'Education" in Hastings' Dictionary of the 
Bible may be consulted for details; also Schiirer, The Jewish People in 
the Time of Jesus Christ, II, chap, ii, 47-83. 

Greek and Roman religious education. — The developed 
education of the Greek and Roman youth was intimately 
connected with religion. It is the individualism of Chris- 
tianity that has made its religious education so different from 
that of other peoples. When religion is the national posses- 
sion, every youth comes into an appreciation of its significance 
just as he acquires patriotism and the moral standards of his 
group. We have much to learn from an understanding of this 
acquisition of moral and religious ideals by means of the 
social inheritance. 

Literature. — Classical education is discussed by Monroe, Textbook 
in the History of Education fN^^N York: Macmillan, 1907). 

Early Christian education. — There is very little reference 
to education in the New Testament. Education being so 
largely a discipline in the communal life, the disciples took for 
granted that the children of Christians would grow up in the 
practice of the Christian life. The catechumenate was estab- 
lished especially for the instruction of the heathen before their 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 643 

reception into the church. Later it became customary for 
children to receive catechetical instruction before their con- 
firmation. The details of this matter have never been thor- 
oughly studied. 

Literature. — Geraldine Hodgson's Primitive Christian Culture 
(Edinburgh: Clark, 1906) is rather a study of the relation of the early 
Christian leaders to the Graeco-Roman learning. 

Religious education in the Middle Ages. — The church 
councils constantly laid emphasis upon the duty of pastors to 
catechize. There was evidently great laxity on the part of 
the priesthood. Religion was largely participation in the 
festivals and ceremonials of the common religious life. The 
most notable education, which was not without its religious 
character, was that of chivalry. Here the child entered on a 
system of discipline which was not acquired from books but 
from the activities of life. He learned how to live and to be- 
have as a page. In due time the youth learned the duties of a 
squire. At last, with the most solemn and impressive religious 
ceremonial, he took the vows of knighthood. Our modern 
book education, so little related to life, and bereft of pageantry 
and ceremonial, has much to learn from the extraordinary 
effectiveness with which the ideals of knighthood were so often 
achieved in that rude age. Monroe has a brief discussion of 
this discipline. 

In a less degree a similar life-training was effected by the 
trade apprenticeships, and in the homes, both high and low, 
by the teaching given the girls in the performance of house- 
wifely duties. 

Humanism and its effect on religious education. — Human- 
ism, with its great appreciation of learning, brought about 
the change from discipline to instruction. The youth must 
learn the things that could be known, especially the classic 
literature, and in religion he must know the Bible and the 
Creed. To be sure, there was great emphasis upon the 
exercises of religion, but there was far more upon the material. 



644 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

That emphasis characterizes the schools of Germany and of 
Great Britain to this day, and persists in many of the American 
churches. Its fundamental methods were the memorizing 
of Scripture and of catechism and the explanation of these 
in terms of duties, moral and religious. The educational error 
is in exalting the significance of material above the needs of 
the developing human personality. 

Literature. — See Watson, English Grammar Schools to 1660 (Cam- 
bridge: University Press, 1908). For the great educationalinfluence of 
Luther, Painter, Luther on Education (Philadelphia: Lutheran Pub. Co., 
1889), may be consulted. The Jesuits, in order to meet the new Protes- 
tant education, developed their own characteristic system, which is well 
described in Hughes, Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits 
(New York: Scribner, 1892). 

The Sunday school. — The great development of religious 
education arose from the voluntary efforts of the laity to give 
religious instruction to neglected children. While the clergy 
in England, and especially in America, were supposed to 
catechize all the children of their parishes, there were in fact 
large numbers who received no religious instruction at all. 
Many sporadic efforts were made during the eighteenth cen- 
tury to meet this neglect. The one which attained public 
recognition, and therefore permanence, was that of Mr. Robert 
Raikes, of Gloucester, who established schools on Sundays for 
poor children who could not go to school on week days. He 
provided that they should be taught to read in order that they 
might be able to read the Bible and the catechism — the 
chief purpose of reading, according to practically all school 
authorities in the eighteenth century. The name "Sunday 
school" was given to this new institution, and it soon spread 
over all England and Wales, but not so readily in Scotland, 
where religious training was better administered. It was 
imported into America and attained great vogue. National 
organizations were formed for its propagation. At last an 
international organization and a World's Sunday School Con- 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 645 

vention organized all the forces of the Protestant world in a 
united work. 

Literature. — A popular and brief treatment of this subject is Cope, 
The Evolution of the Sunday School (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 191 1). A 
fuller discussion for America is Brown, Sunday School Movements in 
America {Chicdigo: Revell, 1901). The convention reports of the inter- 
national Sunday School Association record the progress and statistics 
of the movement. 

The modem religious educational emphasis. — ^While the 
Sunday school in its extensive effort went into every com- 
munity in Great Britain and America and spread over the 
whole world, its work for the most part was, and is still, very 
superficial. The Sunday-school teacher is generally entirely 
untrained. Sunday-school literature has until recently been 
far below the standards of the public school. Sunday-school 
work has been enthusiastic and inspirational, but not educa- 
tional. During the last quarter of a century in England and 
America expert educators have given much attention to the 
matter of religious education, earnestly advocating reforms 
and improvements. 

In 1903 the Rehgious Education Association was formed 
for the purpose of uniting all persons interested in the subject 
in a common endeavor to further religion, by educational 
means, in home, school, church, community, and in all 
human life. The International Sunday School Association 
has been hospitable to the newer ideals and has invited the 
co-operation of religious educators and given them place on 
its boards and committees. It has completely revised its 
curriculum, presenting a graded course of study from the 
kindergarten to the adult classes. This has been accepted 
and issued in text-pamphlet form by the leading denomina- 
tional publishing houses. Other systems of graded curricula 
have been developed^ most notably the ''Constructive 
Studies" published by the University of Chicago Press, 



646 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

the '^Completely Graded Series" published by Scribner, and 
the new graded system announced by the Unitarian Board. 

The problem of moral and religious education in the 
pubhc schools has received earnest attention during recent 
years. The great controversy over sectarian education in 
England produced the Moral Education League, which 
developed a series of textbooks in the j&eld. Sadler's two- 
volume Moral Instruction and Training in Schools is a con- 
spectus of what is being attempted in this direction all over 
the world. The proceedings of the National Education 
Association and of the Religious Education Association con- 
tain numerous papers presenting the various points of view 
of education in America. 

Numerous very interesting experiments, notably that at 
Gary, have recently come into operation. These will need 
most careful observation and criticism. A valuable beginning 
of such evaluation has been made in the reports published in 
Religious Education, February, 19 16. 

3. DATA OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

General psychology. — Religious education is concerned 
with a process in consciousness. Religion is a complex of 
attitudes, dispositions, habits, ideals; it is concerned with 
reactions of thought, of feeling, of conduct; it has to do with 
imagination, memory, association. Education in religion 
can only be understood as consciousness in all these aspects 
is understood. The science of consciousness is psychology, 
which therefore must be fundamental in the study and prac- 
tice of religious education. 

Genetic psychology. — The human personality, conceived 
as a psycho-physical organism, is in process of development. 
From birth to maturity there are interrelated changes, physical 
and psychical, which determine the nature of the organism at 
any period of its growth. Education cannot deal with mem- 
ory, imagination, reasoning, but with these functions of con- 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 647 

sciousness as they operate at any given stage of development. 
The science of the developing consciousness is genetic psy- 
chology, which thus becomes of high importance to the 
religious educator. 

Literature. — Irving King's Psychology of Child Development (Chicago: 
The University of Chicago Press, 1903) is good for the first years of life 
and his High School Age for the study of adolescence. Kirkpatrick's 
Fundamentals of Child Study (New York: Macmillan, 1903) is a more 
general work. 

Social psychology. — Education is also a social process. 
Indeed, it cannot be defined apart from the use of social terms. 
Thus the special phase of psychology which is concerned with 
the study of the social nature of consciousness and the inter- 
pretation of reciprocal personal relations is contributory to 
education. 

Literature. — Cooley's Human Nature and the Social Order (New 
York: Scribner, 1901) is a good introductory work in this field. 

Anthropology. — All subjects today are studied genetically. 
Every phase of our religious experience has its history and is 
illuminated by an understanding of its genesis and develop- 
ment. A knowledge of the life, culture, and education of 
primitive man and of the less developed races is of great 
value for the appreciation of modern problems. The fact 
that the correspondences between primitive and child life 
have been greatly overstated does not lessen the importance 
of the contribution of anthropology to education. 

Literature. — The reading of Thomas' Source Book of Social Origins 
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909) reveals at once the 
significant educational implications of this subject. 

The psychology of religion. — ^As religious education is con- 
cerned with the development of the moral-religious life, it is 
obvious that it must understand the nature of the experience 
which it seeks to promote. The psychology of religion studies 
and interprets that experience, thus furnishing the religious 



648 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

educator with the means of understanding his task and esti- 
mating his results. This is also a new science, and so depend- 
ent is religious education upon the progress of the psychology 
of religion that the two can scarcely be separated in practical 
study. This science holds so large a relation to the whole 
field of practical theology that it has seemed wise to give it a 
brief separate treatment, with some discussion of its literature 
(see below, pp. 663 ff.). 

General education. — Education is a unitary process. 
Religious education is not a distinct undertaking which can 
be separated from so-called ''secular" education. Every 
educational process has its ethical and religious influence. 
Whether we work in church or in school, we deal with the 
same human instincts, dispositions, capacities, emotions, ideas, 
activities. Religious education is only a special emphasis. 
If it is to be broad and wise it must keep close to the principles 
and methods which education in general has worked out. 
Education has made great advances in recent years; it has a 
hundred experts where religious education has one. The 
younger branch of the science does well, therefore, to learn 
very humbly from the elder. 

Literature. — Thorndike's Education (New York: Macmillan, 191 2) 
is a representative non-technical treatise in the larger field. 

4. THEORIES OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

There is a theory of religious education, held by not a few 
persons who are not themselves religious, which may be called 
prophylactic. A writer on the subject actually stated that 
he would wish to have his own child brought up in the strictest 
type of Calvinism till he was about eleven years of age, after 
which he would gradually let him get rid of it. A lady who 
does not regard the church as useful to herself allowed her 
children to engage in all its activities, and frankly stated 
that it seemed to be about the best thing for them until 
they reached fifteen years of age. These views would seem 
to indicate that religion is a lower stage of culture through 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 649 

which the child must pass on his way to that of the super- 
rehgious man. 

The culture-epochs theory.— The only theory of religious 
education which has actually gained a name is that which 
has come over from the field of general education and is 
founded on the recapitulation theory. As biology was sup- 
posed to have proved that the individual recapitulated, in 
the prenatal stage, the history of his whole line of ancestors, so 
by an interesting analogy it was assumed that in his postnatal 
stage he passed through the various periods of culture through 
which the race has passed. Born an animal, he developed into 
a savage — this stage roughly comprising the period of child- 
hood — thence into a barbarian at adolescence, and so grad- 
ually into a civilized man. This being the case, it was 
positively advantageous that he should live a genuinely sav- 
age and barbarian life lest, like the tadpole deprived of his 
tail, he should be cut off from his natural development. This 
theory is worked out in great completeness and with much 
interest in G. StsnileyHalVs Adolescence (New York: Appleton, 
1904). The theory has largely lost its vogue in recent years, 
as both the biologist and anthropologist have denied its 
basis. At the best it would be a very unsafe guide by which 
to organize a system of education. 

The preparation theory. — The process of religious educa- 
tion has very often been regarded as the means by which the 
immature person was prepared for mature life. Spencer 
has given us a great definition of education as preparation for 
complete living. It would be idle to deny that there is a large 
element of truth in this view, but it does not sufficiently take 
account of the most important fact that living itself is the 
only preparation for larger living. The boy is best prepared 
to be a man by being a complete boy. The danger of the 
preparation theory is that it may degenerate into a cold- 
storage theory. For example, because later childhood is 
supposed to be a time of peculiar abihty in memorizing, it has 
often been insisted that advantage should be taken of this 



650 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

fact to ''store the mind" with material that would be useful 
later on. W. W. Smith, in his book Religious Education 
(Milwaukee: Young Churchman Co., 1909), defends this 
view. It has been carried by some to such an extreme that 
abstract theological definitions, expressed in elaborate 
formulas, have been committed to memory by children, who 
are expected to retain them till some future time when 
they would become useful. This is to offend against the 
soundest principles of pedagogy. There can be no value in 
learning anything that does not have some point of contact 
with experience, and nothing can be more unfortunate than 
to associate religion with meaningless abstractions. 

The progressively socialized personality. — The aim of 
religious education can be stated only in terms of socialized 
personality. That means becoming at home in the universe 
with the Father God, at home in the world with the brother- 
man, and contributing one's best to the ongoing process. 
This is to be genetically conceived. At every stage of life 
there is a certain normal possibihty of this socialization. It 
begins with the babe's relation to its mother, as yet unreaHzed, 
extends through the naturally enlarging groups of home, 
companions, school, community, and finds its goal in the 
completely socialized spirit of Jesus. A true religious educa- 
tion would always seek to know what would be the healthful 
and significant experience in this socializing process at any 
period of life, and would strive to secure such limited experi- 
ence, assured that so the best advance was being made 
toward the goal. 

Literature. — Coe, in his Education in Religion and Morals (Chicago: 
Revell, 1904), has presented a theory of religious education which is 
at once social and genetic. 

5. INSTITUTIONS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

Dewey, in Moral Principles Underlying Education, has 
shown that the definition of education as the symmetrical 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 651 

development of all the powers of the individual is defective 
because each of the terms needs to be defined. The individual 
does not develop by himself but always in relation to social 
situations. Education is therefore to be conceived as a 
social process ; moral-religious education particularly so. It is 
in the creation of social situations conducive to ethical and 
religious development that the process of such education 
consists. There are at least four institutions which are con- 
cerned with this task. 

The home. — Altogether the most important rehgious 
institution is the home. In the early years of childhood are 
formed the dispositions, prejudices, and attitudes which are 
so largely determinative through life. The home is able to 
provide a natural community within which its various, mem- 
bers shall live that corporate life which is genuinely social. 
Yet the home is for the most part little conscious of its responsi- 
bility and even of the real nature of its task. 

Literature. — Coe, in the book above cited, has a significant discussion 
of this matter. See also a study in Religious Education in the American 
Home, prepared by Votaw for the Religious Education Association. 

The problem of the education of parents is one that must 
be vigorously faced. After the wide discussion regarding the 
teaching of sex hygiene in the schools, many educators have 
come to the conclusion that the proper method is to teach 
the parents how to teach their children ; and the principle that 
is made so evident in startling fashion in this subject is equally 
true in many others. The most progressive churches are 
seriously undertaking classes for parents in the health of 
childhood, the psychology of childhood, the problems of reli- 
gious and moral nurture. 

Literature. — ^A good book in this field is St. John, Child Nature and 
Child Nurture (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 191 1). 

The social problems of the modern home constitute great 
difficulties. Among these are adequate space opportunities 



652 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

for recreation, the scattering of the family in various pursuits, 
the absence of definite and significant tasks for children, the 
increasing independence of young people, the decay of family 
worship. 

Literature. — A. very satisfactory treatment of the various phases of 
the subject will be found in Cope, Religious Education in the Family 
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 191 5). 

The school. — Historically the school has always been 
regarded as an institution particularly concerned with moral 
and religious education. Its close relationship with the 
church, which existed until very recently in America, and 
which still continues in many countries, made possible a cor- 
related religious education through week days and Sundays. 
The complicated process by which this has become impossible 
in America is familiar, and it is quite useless as well as unwise 
to make any attempt to return to our former condition. Our 
schools are inevitably ''secularized"; that is to say, they 
cannot give specifically religious instruction, nor can they 
make use of the Bible, even to the extent of reading limited 
portions of it. 

However, the real responsibility of the school for moral 
training is only obscured by a discussion of the permissibility 
of the use of the Bible by the teacher. Our definition of 
religious education indicates the direction in which the school 
must function in the development of the child. If the studies 
are so organized as to permit an enlargement and enrichment 
of the social experience, if the school is a community where 
the social life of teacher and pupils and of children together 
is so carried on that actual social values are realized, then the 
school is serving most effectively as an institution of moral 
education. 

Literature. — This subject has been much discussed in the proceedings 
of the National Education Association and of the Religious Education 
Association. There is a valuable series of essays by Rugh et al. on 
''The Essential Place of Religion in Education" (Ann Arbor: National 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 653 

Education Association, 1916). Dewey has considered the social value 
of the curriculum in The School and Society (Chicago: The University of 
Chicago Press, 1899), and Irving King has brought together a series of 
significant papers in Social Aspects of Education (New York: Macmillan, 
191 2). The bibliographies in this latter work are especially valuable. 

The church. — The one institution whose sole and specific 
aim is religious education is the church. All its organization, 
worship, instruction, social life, and altruistic developments 
are properly directed toward the development of the moral- 
religious values in its membership, and in those to whom its 
members may minister. And the church is strong in pro- 
portion as it recognizes its educational purpose and its social 
responsibility. 

This function of the church may be obscured under any of 
the following conditions: (a) when the church exists as a 
religious institution, separate in thought and interests from 
the great world of modern life; {h) when the idea obtains that 
the principal business of the church is to get people converted 
or committed to the Christian life, as if anything significant 
were accomplished by this one moment of decision; {c) when 
the traditional routine of church life goes on without any 
careful study of the educational character of its various 
activities and their possible modification or improvement; 
{d) when the necessity for financial self-maintenance absorbs 
the energies of its members, with the consequent temptation 
to resort to catch-penny, and therefore non-educational, 
means of raising money; {e) when the altruistic motives lead 
the members to sporadic and unconsidered charities without 
the establishment of genuine social relations. 

Literature. — Faunce discusses many of these problems most help- 
fully in The Educational Ideal in the Ministry (New York: Macmillan, 
1908). 

The church has some serious handicaps in its task: 
(a) While it has a superlative opportunity in the fact that 
Sunday morning is still practically its own, yet even this 



654 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

great section of t ime is quite insufficient for adequate educa- 
tion, (b) In spite of the fact, in which the church has gloried, 
that the last century has been conspicuous for the magnitude 
of its lay service, it is becoming increasingly evident that 
this service is lamentably incompetent. A trained lay 
leadership is a present problem of great moment, (c) The 
church has traditions of a noble architecture which, however, 
was designed originally for the spectators of a dramatic 
pageant, and then was modified to suit the needs of the 
audience of a popular oration, and now must be adapted to 
the demands of a complicated educational institution. Few 
churches have the equipment that is necessary for the educa- 
tional task. 

Literature. — Evans has discussed this problem very practically in 
The Sunday-School Building and Its Equipment (Chicago : The University 
of Chicago Press, 1914). 

Some interesting experiments are being made in the direc- 
tion of enlarging religious education by co-operation between 
the church and the public school. In North Dakota high- 
school students may receive credit for Bible-study carried on 
in the Sunday school, examinations on the subject being set 
by the state authorities. A similar plan is in operation in 
Colorado arid elsewhere. In the almost revolutionary plans 
of the schools of Gary, Indiana, the superintendent has offered 
to the churches any opportunities that they desire to take the 
children during school hours for study in the church buildings. 
Several denominations have put educational directors into that 
community to work out such plans of religious education. 
The results will depend largely upon the possibility of training 
religious teachers. 

The community. — ^We are just beginning to realize that 
the community is a social institution with high educational 
value. Chicago's establishment of field houses is notable. 
The large educational values that arise out of properly 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 655 

organized play must be recognized, not only by the church and 
Christian associations, but by the municipalities and the 
rural communities, for the life of a people will never rise 
above the level of the moral quality of its amusements. When 
boys or girls run the streets, form gangs, and patronize 
harmful amusements, they are being educated downward by 
the community. 

Literature. — ^Jane Addams has discussed this problem in The Spirit 
of Youth and the City Streets (New York: Macmillan, 1910). The ques- 
tion is to the fore whether the community has not a distinctly positive 
educational responsibility beyond the mere provision of intellectual 
training. The Wider Use of the School Plant by Perry (New York: 
Charities Publication Committee, 191 1) is a discussion of certain phases 
of this responsibility. 

It is important that the church should foster this move- 
ment and direct it rather than feel jealous of its influences. 
The church gains in its very loss whenever it inspires the 
people as a whole to take upon themselves some new educa- 
tional function. 

Literature. — Social Aspects of Education by Irving King (New York: 
Macmillan, 191 2) may again be referred to, especially chap, vii, 
"Playground Extension," and the bibliography at the close of the 
chapter. 

The correlation of educational activities. — The aroused 
sense of educational responsibility has resulted in the some- 
what feverish anxiety of various institutions to equip them- 
selves for the task without having any very clear idea of the 
division of the responsibility. As soon as we can see the 
possibilities a little more clearly, there will need to be some 
better definition of the functions of the various educational 
institutions than has yet been made, and some satisfactory 
correlation of their efforts. It may be possible to do this 
through the Religious Education Association, in whose journal 
these problems are constantly discussed. 



656 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

6. THE ORGANIZATION OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

Developments in the church. — The acceptance of the 
Sunday school by the church in the beginning of the last 
century was the first educational development beyond the 
pastoral oversight of the young. This was followed by the 
establishment of many societies of young men and women for 
self-culture, culminating in the formation of the Young 
People's Society of Christian Endeavor. This, with its related 
denominational organizations, was properly intended for 
young people of about eighteen to twenty-five years of age. 
Unfortunately junior societies were formed for children and 
intermediate societies for boys and girls, each conducting 
prayer and testimony meetings in imitation of their elders. 
A much healthier development was the Knights of King 
Arthur for boys, the Queens of Avalon for girls, and other 
similar institutions founded on the modernized ideals of 
chivalry. The latest, and in many respects most satisfactory 
of all, are the Boy Scouts and the Campfire Girls. Besides 
these better-known organizations there are a host of clubs, 
recreational, dramatic, musical, together with choir organiza- 
tions, mission-study circles, etc. Within the Sunday school 
itself have come the organized classes, such as Baracas and 
Philatheas, which are essentially clubs with various recrea^- 
tional and other activities. 

Correlation of educational agencies in the local church. — 
A very serious problem is the adjustment of these various 
organizations to one another and to the church life as a 
whole. Many of the interesting activities which formerly 
belonged to the Sunday school have been taken over by these 
specialized organizations, so that it may easily come to pass 
that the Sunday school will be merely a teaching institution, 
all the social activities being otherwise conducted. The 
attempts that have been made to conserve the significance of 
the biblical instruction by requiring a certain minimum of 
attendance in Sunday school for eligibility for the more inter- 



TRACTICAL THEOLOGY 657 

esting activities are not likely to enhance the intrinsic value 
of the instruction. Evidently there is needed such a corre- 
lation of these good activities that there shall be no gaps, 
no overlapping, no useless organizations, no undue demand 
upon individuals either as leaders or as members, while the 
educational idea shall be dominant. The Sunday school would 
seem to be the basal organization which can be enlarged and 
developed to include all others. 

Literature. — The details of such a solution of the problem are pre- 
sented in the report of a commission on the subject in Religious Educa- 
tion for April, 191 2, and have since been worked out by Athearn in 
The Church School (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 1914). 

Community organizations of religious education. — The 
local denominational church is seldom competent to care for all 
the educational interests of its own people; and when a 
vigorous church is able to do so, this is frequently done at the 
cost of others who are unable to compete. It is becoming 
increasingly evident that many educational activities should 
be carried on by the whole Christian community rather than 
by the individual church. The Christian associations often 
serve as such co-operating agencies. The city institute for 
teacher- training which has been developed in many places, 
most notably in Des Moines, Iowa, is a significant effort in 
this direction. Athearn has described this and discussed the 
principles involved in The City Institute for Religious Teachers 
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 19 15). The 
question has indeed arisen whether we may not in the near 
future need a city superintendent of religious education who 
would be an ofhcer of experience and dignity comparable to 
the superintendent of schools. 

7. MATERIALS OF RELIGIOUS -EDUCATION 

The criteria of religious material. — When Christian faith 
is defined in intellectuaHstic terms, rehgious material does 
not extend much beyond the Bible, Christian doctrine, and the 



658 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

elements of worship. But when religion is thought of as pro- 
gressive socialization, everything that tends to enrich social 
experience has moral-religious value. There is a sense in 
which every sound discipline would mediate such enrichment. 
It is the same sense in which we speak of all life as religious. 
However, it would be more helpful to confine the term '^ reli- 
gious" or ''ethical" or ''social" to such material as has some 
special wealth in the particular direction. 

Literature. — Pease, An Outline of a Bible-School Curriculum (Chicago: 
The University of Chicago Press, 1906), and Haslett, the Pedagogical 
Bible School, Part III (Chicago: Revell, 1903), discuss the religious and 
moral values of a wide range of material. 

The value of the Bible. — All that has been written regarding 
the Bible as literature of power, as the inspirational record of 
religious experience, applies at this point, with a further pro- 
vision that its value must be estimated with reference to the 
developing experience of the growing individual. Its wide 
range of literature contains material adapted to the interest 
and experience of every age of life. The Bible can no longer 
be the one material of religious instruction. We do not need 
a "Bible" school. But there is no danger that the Bible will 
lose its unique significance. Its intrinsic worth, the hallowed 
associations of the centuries, and its integral place in our 
literature and thought make the Bible religious material 
of first value. 

Literature. — The writer has discussed the literary value of the Bible 
in detail in an article on "Types of Literature in the Bible" in The Ency- 
clopedia of Sunday Schools and Religious Education, and an excellent 
treatment of the subject is Raymont's The Use of the Bible in the Edu- 
cation of the Young (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 191 1). 

Direct moral and religious instruction. — When any 
material embodies the idea that is to be taught without spe- 
cifically expressing it, the moral instruction is indirect. Can 
such instruction be given directly? Of course the most 
effective instruction is connected with the actual occurrence 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 659 

of moral crises, as when the telling of a lie gives opportunity 
to discuss the social significance of lying, or when the sense of a 
need of God leads to instruction in prayer. A more difficult 
question is whether vital moral discussion can be aroused 
apart from the occurrence of the moral crisis. The futihty 
of a vast amount of exhortation to be good is, of course, 
evident. 

Literature. — Some systems devised for teaching a catalogue of virtues 
were well criticized by Coe, in an address before the National Education 
Association, on "Virtue and the Virtues," published in Religious Education, 
January, 191 2. But practical ethics may be taught with tact and skill. 
Jenks, Life Questions of High School Boys (New York: Y.M.C.A. Press, 
1908), and Johnson, The Problems of Boyhood (Chicago: The University 
of Chicago Press, 1914), are able texts for the purpose. There is need of 
similar books for girls. 

8. METHODS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

Religious pedagogy. — When the problem of adequate 
religious material has been solved and this material has been 
organized into a graded system, there arises the problem of 
pedagogy. The same objection may be made to the term ' ' reli- 
gious pedagogy" as to ''religious education." Of course there 
are no distinct pedagogical principles that belong to religion. 
Any satisfactory system of education seeks to secure from any 
material of instruction the fitting results in social efficiency; 
yet because the religious reactions are so subtle and because so 
much mistake has been made in seeking to get adult reactions 
from immature persons, it is particularly important that the 
principles of teaching should be carefully studied with refer- 
ence to their religious and moral implications. 

Literature. — A first-class book in this field still remains to be written. 
Meantime, James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology (New York: Henry- 
Holt & Co., 1908), is invaluable. McMurry, The Method of the Recita- 
tion (New York: Macmillan, 1906), is an excellent presentation of the 
Herbartian pedagogy, and Dewey, How We Think (Boston: D. C. 
Heath & Co., 1910), is fundamental. Weigel has done an admirable 



66o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

popular piece of work in The Pupil and the Teacher (New York: George 
H. Doran & Co., 191 1). It is to be regretted that a few years ago the 
various denominational houses hastily prepared a number of teacher- 
training books, and have thus occupied the field very inadequately. 
This situation is now being gradually corrected with some better texts. 

The education of religious f eeling.^ — Feeling is fundamental 
in religion and affords impulse to conduct. A full discussion 
of this subject would involve a consideration of worship as a 
phase of the psychology of religion. Of course personal 
religion in the leaders of the church, and simplicity and 
sincerity in the conduct of religious exercises, are essential to 
the cultivation of fine religious feeling. Yet the adequate 
stimulation of such feeling in younger or older people, or in 
groups of various ages, by means of the various liturgical 
elements as well as by spontaneous exercises, is scientifically 
a psychological problem, and practically a problem of tech- 
nique. 

Literature. — Some excellent results which have been achieved in the 
Union School of Religion are discussed by Hartshorne in Worship in the 
Sunday School (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 
1913) . A volume upon The Children in Worship by Boocock is also in the 
series of the University of Chicago Press. 

Expressional activities. — Rehgion has not been taught 
when religious ideas have been imparted, nor when religious 
feeling has been stirred, but only when religious conduct 
has resulted. The church is not so well equipped for this 
experimental task as for the intellectual and emotional phases 
of its work. Indeed, about the only opportunity that it 
has furnished its members for the active expression of religion 
has been, for the few, in carrying on its own life, including its 
educational work, and for the many, both old and young, in 
the giving of money. And this latter activity, with its 
extraordinary educational possibilities, has been for the 
most part sadly uneducational. The church has been so 
busy in getting the money for local and philanthropic and 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 66 1 

missionary needs that it has given little attention to the educa- 
tion of people in the giving of money. This again is a prob- 
lem of graded education, having regard to the developing 
experience of children and young people. Beyond the giving 
of money there is the great field of the giving of service, and 
this in such a way as to establish genuine social relations with 
the persons served. Here is a very fine problem in practical 
social psychology which needs much more careful study 
than it has received. 

Literature. — Hutchins has dealt with the whole matter in Graded 
Social Service for the Sunday School (Chicago : The University of Chicago 
Press, 191 5). 

9. SPECIAL PROBLEMS 

The problems of religious education beyond those involved 
in the various phases of the subject already discussed are 
intimately connected with the problems of the psychology of 
religion . Indeed they are often largely t^e educational aspects 
of these latter problems. 

Very fundamental is the question whether anything like an 
experimental approach to these problems is possible. Can 
we devise a technique by means of which we can measure 
the results of our educational experiment in religion and 
morals ? 

Literature. — In a paper, "Securing First-Hand Data as to the Reli- 
gious Development of Children," in Religious Education, October, 191 5, 
Hartshorne argues for the practicabihty of such investigation. 

Some of the most pressing problems to be studied are the 
following: (i) efficient religious education for the various 
stages of the developing life, young child, older child, boy, 
girl, young man, young woman, adult; (2) the place of the 
intellectual, the affective, and the conduct elements in reli- 
gious development ; (3) the development of moral and religious 
life in connection with the growth of sex-consciousness ; (4) the 
relation of religion and play; (5) the preparation of the child 
for church membership. 



662 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Literature. — The Proceedings of the Religious Education Association 
(322 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago) and its magazine, Religious 
Education, contain the most significant material in this field. The 
Association publishes numerous pamphlets, one of the most important of 
which is Graded Textbooks for the Modern Sunday School (free) . The 
student of religious education will do well to read representative works 
in general education. *Thorndike, Education (New York: Macmillan, 
191 2), will be a good introduction. The Original Nature of Man (New 
York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 19 13), by the same 
author, is suggested because of its thorough discussion of instinct as basal 
for all education. While the work is somewhat technical, the religious 
educator will find it valuable as giving him the standpoint from which 
to estimate educational theory and practice. G. Stanley Hall, Adoles- 
cence, 2 vols. (New York: Appleton, 1904), was one of the first books to 
call attention to the characteristics of youth life. It is extreme, laying 
great emphasis on the theory of recapitulation, but is eminently sug- 
gestive. Youth, Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene (New York: 
Appleton, 191 2), is a shorter work, giving Hall's position more succinctly. 
*Irving King, The Psychology of Child Development (Chicago: The 
University of Chicago Press, 1903), and The High School Age (Indian- 
apolis: Bobbs Merrill, 1914), are two volumes covering the field of 
genetic psychology, giving a very satisfactory treatment of the child and 
youth. See also Kirkpatrick, Fundamentals of Child Study (New York: 
Macmillan, 1903). The whole literature of child -study is germane. 
This clear and interesting treatise may be taken as representative. 
*Coe, Education in Religion and Morals (New York: Revell, 1904), was 
one of the early books on the principles of religious education, and is still 
one of the best. Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School (New York: 
Revell, 1903), is a briefer presentation of G. Stanley Hall's position on 
child development in its various stages and an excellent outline of a 
curriculum adapted to those stages. Pease, An Outline of a Bible- 
School Curriculum (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1906), 
was one of the first efforts to set forth the principles of graded lessons in 
religious education. It is still very valuable. Burton and Mathews, 
Principles and Ideals for the Sunday School (Chicago: The University of 
Chicago Press, 1903), presents a discussion of school organization and of 
pedagogical method. It is especially valuable for the latter and is 
commended to the teacher. *Athearn, The Church School (Boston: 
Pilgrim Press, 1914), is the best presentation of the organization of the 
Sunday school and related organizations. The bibliography is full and 
valuable. There is no better book than *Cope, The Modern Sunday 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 663 

School in Principle and Practice (New York: Re veil, 1907), to introduce 
the new ideal into the Sunday school. His Efficiency in the Sunday 
School (New York: George H. Doran & Co., 191 2) is a discussion of 
specific factors making for efficiency, and is excellent. Hartshorne, 
Worship in the Sunday School (New York: Teachers College, Columbia 
University, 1913), is a popular treatment of the psychology of liturgy 
and a presentation of the worship values and opportunities as worked 
out in the Union School of Religion. Cope, The Evolution of the Sunday 
School (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 191 1), is a concise and accurate treat- 
ment of the history of religious education. Brown, Sunday School 
Movements in America (New York: Revell, 1901), is an excellent history. 
Hoben, The Minister and the Boy (Chicago : The University of Chicago 
Press, 191 2), is a fascinating presentation of the possibilities of the 
pastor's relation to' the boys of his parish. *Hutchins, Graded Social 
Service for the Sunday School (Chicago: The University of Chicago 
Press, 19 14), gives a discussion of the principles involved in social con- 
tributions of children and a presentation of practical plans from the 
kindergarten to the adult grades. *Evans, The Sunday-School Building 
and Its Equipment (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1914), is 
the best presentation of the modern educational needs in the matter 
of equipment. Churches undertaking new buildings or seeking to 
remodel old ones should consult this work. Athearn, The City Institute 
for Religious Leaders (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 191 5), 
presents a practical plan for community teacher training. Wardle, 
Handwork in Religious Education (Chicago: The University of Chicago 
Press, 1916) treats the science and practice of expressional activity. 
Herbert W. Gates, The Church and Recreation (Chicago: The Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press, in press, 1916). Cope, Religious Education 
in the Family (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 191 5), is a 
most helpful and practical treatment of this important subject. The 
Encyclopedia of Sunday Schools and Religious Education (New York: 
Nelson, 191 5) contains many valuable articles. The literature under 
"The Psychology of Religion" should also be consulted. 

VIII. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

I. THE RELATION OF THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION TO 
PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 

Practical theology is concerned with the principles and 
methods by v^hich religious life and work are developed, 
especially through the institution of the church. But religion 



664 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

is a human experience. It is a phase of human consciousness. 
Its principles and methods cannot be discussed without con- 
stant reference to psychological considerations. Our study 
of the sermon, evangelism, pastoral care, hymnology, and 
liturgies has again and again required reference to the psy- 
chology of religious experience. And the subject of religious 
education goes necessarily hand in hand with this science. 

In the university the subject of the psychology of rehgion 
is naturally organized in the department of philosophy or of 
psychology. In the divinity school it may come to have an 
independent status, although there is not as yet any seminary 
with a chair so named. The intimate relation between the two 
fields of work has in more than one case put the psychology 
of religion with practical theology. Without laying undue 
emphasis upon this relation a brief treatment of the subject 
may be appropriate here. 

2. THE mSTORY OF THE SCIENCE 

This branch of study strictly considered is of very recent 
origin. Some articles in the American Journal of Psychology 
were early essays in this field. Such were Daniels, ''The 
New Life: A Study in Regeneration," VI (1895), 61-103; 
Leuba, ''Studies in the Psychology of Religious Phenomena," 
VII (1896), 309-85. In 1899 appeared Starbuck's more 
comprehensive and elaborate work. The Psychology of Religion 
(New York : Scribner, 1899) . This was mainly a study of the 
phenomena of conversion by means of the questionnaire. 
While it had of necessity the uncertainties involved in that 
method of investigation, it had an important part in awaken- 
ing an interest in the possibiHties of a critical study of religious 
experience. The following year appeared The Spiritual Life 
by Coe (New York: Revell, 1900). This book, though not 
based on numerous cases, discussed more critically and thor- 
oughly the principles of conversion and of rehgious feeling, 
reaching conclusions very similar to those of Starbuck. In 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 665 

the same year in England Granger published The Soul of 
the Christian (New York: Macmillan, 1900), a theoretical psy- 
chological study of conversion, visions and voices, love, ritual, 
prophecy, and theology. There followed in 1902 the really 
great and ingenious Gifford Lectures by William James, on 
Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: Longmans, 
Green, & Co., 1902). Unlike his predecessors, James based 
his investigation on the biographies of many noted religious 
persons of the past, endeavoring from the standpoint of 
psychology to interpret those experiences that had been so 
often regarded as unique and inexphcable. James made much 
use of the theory of the subconscious, which has since been 
seriously questioned. In 1905 Davenport made a valuable 
contribution in Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals (New 
York: Macmillan, 1905), a keen study of those phen mena 
from the social as well as the psychological point of view. 
G. Stanley Hall, who had made wide investigations by the 
questionnaire method, founded in 1904 the Journal of Religious 
Psychology and Education (since 191 2 the Journal of Reli- 
gious Psychology) and has printed numerous essays in this 
field. The short-lived Zeitschrift fur Religions psychologic, 
published by J. Bresler at Halle, should also be noted. The 
work of Murisier in France on the pathological phases of 
religious experience, of Delacroix and others on mysticism, 
of Flournoy on the psychology of inspiration, of Henri Bois on 
religious feeling, and of Frommel on conversion made con- 
tributions to the science. Harold Begbie's practical observa- 
tions of remarkable cases of conversion which he has given 
us in Twice Born Men (New York: Revell, 1909), Other 
Sheep (New York: George H. Doran & Co., 1912), Souls in 
Action (New York: George H. Doran & Co., 191 1), etc., are 
important data for the psychologist. Pratt's Psychology 
of Religious Belief (New York: Macmillan, 1905) was an 
attempt to explain scientifically the behef attitude. Ames's 
Psychology of Religious Experience (Boston : Houghton Mifflin 



666 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Co., 19 lo) is the best statement of the social theory of the 
development of religion, while Stratton has criticized this 
view in The Psychology of the Religious Life (London : Allen, 
1911). 

In Germany the work in the psychology of religion has not 
been clearly differentiated from that in the history of religion 
and in the philosophy of religion. Elemente der Volker- 
psychologie,hyW. M.Wundt(Leipzig: Kroner, 1900-), belongs 
rather to the former science, and Die religions psychologische 
Methode in Religionswissenschaft und Theologie (Leipzig: 
Hinrichs, 19 13), by Georg Wobbermin, belongs to the latter. 

The number of workers in the field of psychology of 
religion is rapidly increasing, and in the last few years a large 
amount of material has appeared in the form of articles in 
scientific journals as well as in books. 

3. DEFINITION AND SCOPE 

In distinction from metaphysics. — The psychology of reli- 
gion does not concern itself with the objective truth of religious 
beliefs. It has nothing to do with ontology. It is not con- 
cerned to establish the objective validity of any faith or rite, 
or even of rehgion itself. These considerations belong to 
theology proper or to metaphysics. Religion as we actually 
find it is a part of human experience. Behefs, feelings, 
activities of rehgion, just because they appear as states of 
consciousness, lend themselves to scientific observation, classi- 
fication, and explanation. 

Pratt gives the following description of the task of the 
rehgious psychologist: 

Having collected his facts, the psychologist will proceed as other 
scientists proceed with their data. That is to say, he will group his 
facts and note the general relations between them, thus seeking a sys- 
tematic and general description of the various facts in the religious 
consciousness. Whenever possible, he will "explain" these facts by 
subsuming them under the laws of general psychology, that is to say, 
he will proceed on the assumption that, for the purposes of science, reli- 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 667 

gious facts are not different in kind from other psychic facts. Thus he 
will seek to build up a scientific view of the religious life, interpreting and 
explaining it by itself and by the known facts and laws of the human 
mind ^ 

Irving King makes the important suggestion that in the 
psychology of religion one must not take for granted the con- 
cepts of religionists and use them on the same level with 
psychological terms. 

Relation to the history of religion. — ^Leuba distinguishes the 
psychology of religion from the history of religion on the 
ground that the former deals with the contents of conscious- 
ness, impulses, desires, representations, ideas, volitions; 
whereas the latter finds its data in the deeds of men and chiefly 
in the social resultants of the activities of individuals. The 
two, however, are very intimately related. 

Literature. — Irving King's Development of Religion (New York: 
Macmillan, 19 10) goes into the field of psychology, and many books on 
the psychology of religion derive much of their material from the study of 
historic religions, and particularly of the religions of primitive peoples, 
e.g., that of the Australian tribes as known from the researches made 
by Spencer and Gillen. 

Phylogenetic and ontogenetic problems. — Many of the 
problems of the psychology of religion are anthropological, 
such as the origin of religion in the race, the rise of religious 
rites and ceremonies, the forms of beliefs, superstitions, etc. ; 
and even those that seem definitely individual, such as the rise 
of religious consciousness, the stages of religious development, 
the place of feeling, will, and ideas in religious consciousness, 
and such phenomena as conversion, sanctification, prayer, 
faith, revivals, worship, inspiration, prophecy, mysticism, all 
run back to anthropological considerations. While, however, 
this intimate relationship exists, the problems that are dis- 
tinctly psychological are those which concern the religious 
consciousness as we know it. 

^ "The Psychology of Religion," Journal of Religious Psychology, V, 386. 



668 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

4. METHODS^ 

A consideration of the means by which the psychology of 
rehgion accumulates its facts is of prime importance, as upon 
this its validity depends. Four methods may be distin- 
guished as having been employed by investigators. 

The introspective method. — This is the ordinary method 
in the science of mental life in general, which religious psy- 
chology may properly make use of. It may indeed be 
questioned whether a man to whom the religious experience 
is-personally foreign, if such there be, is capable of making a 
proper estimate of the phenomena of religious consciousness. 
The best example of this method is Granger, The Soul of 
a Christian. 

The biographical method. — This includes studies of bi- 
ographies, autobiographies, letters, and other spontaneous 
expressions of religious persons. ' It has the value, of course, 
of widening the range of observation. James made use of this 
method in his Varieties of Religious Experience. 

The questionnaire method. — This consists in collecting 
answers to definite questions from a large number of persons. 
Its value depends upon the skill with which the questions are 
framed with reference to securing the actual facts, the range 
of the investigation, the willingness and ability of the persons 
questioned to give adequate answers, and the skill of the 
investigator in the classification and interpretation of the 
answers. Its weakness is that the most suggestible persons 
usually answer the questions, that there is no means of 
checking the accuracy of the answers, and that very few 
persons are competent to give information regarding their 
own subjective life. An illustration of this method is Star- 
buck's Psychology of Religion. 

The comparative or objective method. — The study of the 
relatively objective experiences of social religion furnished by 
history, anthropology, the sacred Hterature of various peoples, 
furnishes data of high scientific accuracy. This method is 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 669 

employed by Irving King in the Development of Religion, 
and largely by Ames in his Psychology of Religious Experience. 
Other Available Methods. — ^Besides the foregoing, which 
have commonly been employed, there are other possible 
methods of approaching the subject. The accurate and 
continued observation of a few individuals in their religious 
development should yield important results. The statistical 
method has to a certain extent been employed by all writers 
on the subject, but there is a large field before it in the study 
of the efficiency of the directed efforts toward religious develop- 
ment. How far the methods of experimental psychology 
may be available is open to question. George E. Dawson 
has reported briefly an attempt in this direction in the Journal 
of Religious Psychology, II (19 13), 50-58). 

Literature. — Coe, Psychology of Religion (Chicago: The University 
of Chicago Press, 191 6), has an illuminating discussion of methodology. 

5. PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

Definition of religion. — The simple question, What is 
religion? is one of the most difficult and baffling to answer 
scientifically. The philosophy of religion has long been 
engaged upon a definition and has produced about a hundred 
forms. Wright (''A Psychological Definition of Religion," 
American Journal of Theology, XVI [191 2], 385) suggests 
that these are of three types: (i) those having the general 
qualities of Hoff ding's *' conservation of values"; (2) those 
insisting on the supernatural agency; (3) those giving chief 
importance to the ''feeling" element. Evidently there is 
another distinction from the standpoint of the psychologist, 
namely, whether religion arises as the product of social 
organization or has an instinctive basis in the nature of man. 
Ames and King represent the former point of view; James, 
Coe, and Stratton the latter. 

Literature. — See Coe, ''Religion from the Standpoint of Functional 
Psychology," American Journal of Theology, XV (April, 191 1), 301-8, 



670 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

''The Origin and Nature of Children's Faith in God," ibid., XVIII 
(April, 1914), 169-90, and his Psychology of Religion. An interesting 
attempt at a mediating point of view is made by Watson in an article, 
''The Logic of Religion," American Journal of Theology, XX (January 
and April, 1916), 81-101 and 244-65. 

The religious experience of childhood. — On the basis of 
genetic psychology we are to ask, What is the nature of the 
religious in child consciousness ? What is the criterion of 
religious sentiment in the child ? What relation does it hold 
to other phases of child life ? Different answers to these 
questions are suggested \^ the authors above cited. Those 
who conceive of religion as a social phenomenon consider 
that it belongs almost wholly to adolescence, childhood 
religion being objective, external, ritualistic, imitative. 
Those who find an instinctive basis for religion in the in- 
dividual would credit children with the possibility of a 
genuine, if simple, religious experience. Much further study 
of individual children needs to be made. 

The religious experience of youth. — The most definite 
contribution that the psychology of religion has made is its 
recognition of the character of adolescent religion. The 
studies of Starbuck and Coe, and also those of G. Stanley 
Hall, have shown that ''conversion" is really a natural 
phenomenon of adolescence based on the growing and expand- 
ing of the personal self. Its connection with the rise of the 
sex-consciousness is very interesting, as is also its relation to 
the initiation ceremonies at puberty among primitive peoples. 
Some have gone so far as to consider religion itself as an 
outgrowth of sex feeling. The religious experience of the 
youth is so largely conditioned by adult preconception and 
prescriptions that there is still much opportunity for the 
study of its normal character. 

Conversion. — Distinction ought to be made between the 
religious awakening of youth, which at its best is probably a 
process of evaluation and idealization, and that more vital 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 671 

crisis which James describes as the unifying of the divided 
self. The latter is generally the result of a long tension 
which finally yields to the relaxation of peace. 

Literature. — The writer has discussed this matter with reference 
to its educational implications in an article on "Some Psychological 
Aspects of Regeneration" in the Biblical World, XXXVII (February, 
1911), 78-88. The large literature on the subject has been given above. 

Sex in religion. — The question of the diff.erences in the 
rehgious experiences of boys and girls, and of men and women, 
is a very interesting and important one. Most of the dis- 
cussions on the subject rather superficially state that the 
female is subjective, introspective, sentimental, concerned 
with religion as a matter of personal feeling and with reference 
to future bliss, while the male is objective, rational, con- 
cerned with religion as a matter of conduct in this present 
world. It is said that our hymns and our churches are 
feminine, and that therefore women greatly outnumber men 
in them. Perhaps all this is more true of the past than 
of the present, and much of it may belong to the hereditary 
treatment which women have received rather than to their 
psychological constitution. At all events, it is becoming 
increasingly difficult to consider women in the categories thus 
laid down. They insist upon intellectualizing their religion, 
in demanding outlets of religious activity, and they are promi- 
nent in reform and in philanthropy. Hall, Starbuck, Haslett, 
and Coe have attempted to make these sex distinctions in 
rehgious experience. But it is questionable whether we yet 
know very much about the matter. Most of the careful 
studies in adolescence have been made with boys. It is to be 
hoped that more will be done in the study of girls. 

Literature. — Meantime such a book as Thomas' Sex and Society 
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1907) is a basal scientific 
treatise. 

Prayer. — The psychology of religion has nothing to do with 
the objective efficacy of prayer, nor with the question of the 



672 GUIDE TO Study of christian religion 

reality of the Being to whom prayer is addressed. This 
belongs to philosophy, not to psychology, and at last to faith, 
not to science. Psychologically, prayer is a resultant experi- 
ence in attitude and in language of the awakened religious 
consciousness. It satisfies a psychological need. It has a 
definite subjective justification. The mental states of peace, 
exultation, and resolution which issue upon the exercise 
of prayer are due to the release of conscious tension. The 
''demonstration" of the Christian Scientist is, of course, 
psychologically of the same nature. 

Literature. — Strong's Psychology of Prayer (Chicago: The University 
of Chicago Press, 1909) is a significant study of the subject from the 
standpoint of social psychology. 

Revivals. — It is definitely recognized that there is a psy- 
chology of the crowd which is different from that of the 
individual. Such a book as Le Bon's The Crowd (London: 
Unwin, 1903) presents this fact with great clearness, though 
one is not obliged to accept his somewhat cynical view of 
democracy. The revival is a crowd phenomenon. Daven- 
port's careful study of Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals 
(New York: Macmillan, 1905) indicates the essential char- 
acter of these movements in that loss of normal inhibitions 
and that development of the ''sympathetic likemindedness" 
which explain many of the extraordinary results. So far from 
feeling that these studies minimize the appreciation of the 
divine power in saving men, many earnest people think that 
they ought to enable us to understand the laws which are in- 
volved in such movements, so that we may conserve the good 
results and eliminate the dangers. On the basis of such con- 
ceptions a healthy evangelism may well be developed. 

Worship. — FeeKng is predominant in primitive religion, 
and, historically, worship developed as a means of securing 
effective results. The sacrifice, prayer, dance, feasts, fasts, 
whatever may have been their supposedly objective value, 
derived their real significance from their manifestly sub- 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 673 

jective quality. The place of feeling in modern religion is 
an important question, and, in connection therewith, the part 
that symbolism and ritual ceremonies may play in stimulating 
it. While there are probably two types of mind, one type 
being aided by the introduction of outward symbols and 
ceremonies and the other hindered by it, it is equally true 
that no one is likely to be independent of the influence of con- 
crete images and sense stimulations. One may be unaffected 
by the sacrament but powerfully stirred by religious music. 
Worship is significant to religion in four ways: (i) conscious- 
ness is controlled and directed into religious paths; (2) there 
is a collective suggestibility; (3) the motor expressions of a 
feeling through ritual tend to a continuance of the emotion 
and may help toward making it of motor influence in con- 
duct; (4) the assumption of the bodily posture connected with 
any feeling tends to produce or to strengthen the feeling. This 
subject, together with the special significance of music, has 
been discussed in connection with the study of liturgies. 

Inspiration and prophecy. — Faith believes in a revealing 
God. Psychology can only concern itself with the way in 
which the experience of that revelation appears in conscious- 
ness. The message which is "received" is usually a body of 
ideas suggested to the mind by the current state of affairs. It 
is, in other words, a subconscious inference from situations. 
It involves highly intellectual processes of judgment, imagina- 
tion, and reasoning. Kaplan says: ''Revelation .... is a 
sudden mysterious awareness of an inflow of thought, an 
inundation of spirit, an awakening of mind, seemingly from 
unaccountable (subconscious) sources and therefore believed 
to be ... . through supernatural agency." The prophet 
really delivered a rational message, although it may often 
have seemed to him to be other than his own. The vitally 
important matter for modern religion is that the rational 
character of the message shall be understood so that the mod- 
ern recipient may realize his own responsibility of rational 



674 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

interpretation: An objective message from Deity must be 
obeyed without thought or question; the inspired message 
through a man must be evaluated in human experience. So 
may the psychology of religion help our faith. 

Literature. — ^Thomas has treated "The Psychological Approach to 
Prophecy" in the American Journal of Theology, XVIII (April, 191 4), 
241-56. 

Mysticism. — Mysticism as an experience subject to psy- 
chological investigation is a consciousness of immediate union 
with the Infinite. The emotional element always predom- 
inates, and the fundamental quality of the emotionalism 
is love. Mystic experiences are of many kinds and are 
much dependent upon individual temperament. The absorp- 
tion of the mind in one dominant idea, and the excess 
of undifferentiated emotion which generally accompanies it, 
may easily result in abnormality and mental disease. Yet 
all forms of religious experience contain some element of 
mysticism, and all the great saints have been mystics. In the 
practical religion that is so much desiderated by many for 
modern times, it is of great moment to inquire what place 
will be found for the mystic element that has characterized 
the supreme religious spirits of the past. 

Literature. — See Underbill, Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and 
Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness (London: Methuen, 191 1). 

Ethnic aspects of religious consciousness. — The history 
of religion is concerned with the comparative study of the 
objective facts. The psychology of religion may undertake 
to discover the actual differences in the religious experience 
of persons of different races. Does a Japanese youth have 
an evaluated experience with reference to the sun-god that 
is comparable with the ''religious awakening" of the Chris- 
tian youth ? If not, does the difference lie in the intellectual 
content of the religion or in any ethnic quality of mind ? 



PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 675 

Evidently, if missionary education is to be carried on scien- 
tifically, much remains to be done in this field. 

Conclusion. — The foregoing are some of the more impor- 
tant problems which it is the task of the developing science 
of the psychology of religion to investigate. There are many 
others, for every phase of religion has its psychological aspect. 
As above indicated, the employment of the results of these 
studies in practical religious work is the task of religious 
education. 

Literature. — *James, Varieties of Religious Experience (London: 
Longmans, Green, & Co., 1902), is a great contribution on the basis 
of the study of religious biography. Starbuck, Psychology of Religion 
(New York: Scribner, 1899), gives an analysis of the conversion experi- 
ence on the basis of the questionnaire; it is particularly strong in the treat- 
ment of adolescent experience. Coe, The Spiritual Life (New York : 
Revell, 1900), is particularly concerned with the religious awakening 
of youth and with the relation of temperament to various religious 
experiences. The book is based partly on a questionnaire. Davenport, 
Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals (New York: Macmillan, 1905), 
presents an examination of the great revivals in Christian history, with 
reference to an explanation of the psychic phenomena there manifested. 
Irving King, The Development of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 
1910), while belonging rather in the historical field, is a treatment of 
religious phenomena from the standpoint of the psychologist. *Ames, 
The Psychology of Religious Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin 
Co., 1910), gives an interpretation of religion from the standpoint of 
functional psychology. It is a very able and interesting book. Leuba, 
A Psychological Study of Religion; Its Origin, Function, and Future 
(New York: Macmillan, 1912), gives an interpretation of religion by 
means of a study of its primitive manifestations and of the purpose 
that it has served in human life. The author looks for a non-theistic 
religion of humanity. Stratton, in The Psychology of the Religious Life 
(London : George Allen & Co., 191 1) , finds in the religious life an inherent 
struggle and studies the conflict in the field of emotion, of action, and of 
thought. He deals rather with the great historic religions than with 
those of primitive people. F. G. Henke, A Study in the Psychology of 
Ritualism (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1910), is a Doctor's 
dissertation (University of Chicago) on primitive rituals and their 
meaning. J. P. Hylan, Psychology of Public Worship (Chicago: Open 



676 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Court Pub. Co., 1901), is a little book based on a questionnaire as to the 
feelings of people with reference to the Sabbath and worship. The 
discussion is illuminating, A. L. Strong, The Psychology of Prayer 
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909), is a study of prayer 
from the standpoint of social psychology. Coe, Psychology of Religion 
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1916), is a significant in- 
sistence that the implications of functional psychology must be carried 
through. The modern Christian will feel that this is a psychology of 
his own religion. 



XI. CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 

By CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON 

Late Professor and Head of the Department of Practical Sociology in the 

Divinity School, University of Chicago 



ANALYSIS 

I. The Social Evolution of Christianity. — The development of the 
Hebrew reUgion. — The message of Jesus. — The primitive church. — 
Constantine and the Latin church. — Mediaeval thought. — The 
Renaissance. — The Reformation. — The assimilating power of Chris- 
tianity. — Christianity as a contemporary system of beliefs, life, 
institutions. — Biblical exegesis cannot be substituted for social 

science 679-687 

II. Contemporary Social Problems. — i. The equipment essential 
to social leadership. — 2. The historical evolution of social ideals and 
institutions. — Evolution of the race and its institutions. — The impor- 
tance of historical knowledge. — The main aspects of the development 
of industry and commerce. — a) Primitive industrial conditions. — 
h) Mediaeval industry and trade. — c) The downfall of feudalism.— 
d) Modern industrial conditions. — The church and modern industrial- 
ism. — The need of historical perspective. — The evolution of ideas and 
ideals. — Evolution of poor relief. — The development of modern 
social-political ideals 687-699 

III. Personal Preparation for Leadership in Social Service. — 
Education in the social sciences. — In the high school. — In the college 
and university. — Curriculum of social sciences. — The training of 

social workers 699-703 

IV. Analysis and Classification of Social Problems. — i. The 
social groups. — 2. Community interests. — Social regulation. — 
Property. — Social problems. — Social technique 703-710 

V. Christianity in Relation to Social Problems. — i. The ideals of 
the church. — 2. The resources of the church. — The Bible. — Inspiring 
personalities. — Christian literature, — Personal influence of members 
of the church. — Educational equipment. — 3. Defects of the church. — 
4. Signs of promise. — The zeal for reformation. — Missions. — Co- 
operation and federation. — The wise direction of effort in the near 
future. — The characteristic social task of the church the ministry of 
religion. — The promotion of social reforms. — The need of workers. — 
Social politics. — Welfare work. — Socialism. — Common wealth. — 

Perils of progress. — Fellowship in religion the crown of all progress . 710-728 



XI. CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS^ 

I. THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF CHRISTIANITY 

The development of the Hebrew religion. — The Old 

Testament supplies materials for a history of the growth of 
the Hebrew people, its evolution from tribal conditions to its 
incorporation into the Roman Empire. These fragmentary 
documents are themselves composed of varied notices of the 
land, population, industries, domestic experiences, trade, art, 
customs, sentiments, laws, governments, wars, and treaties 
of Palestine and neighboring countries. They reflect the 
state of knowledge, the superstitions, the changing policies, 
the ceremonies, philosophies, and beliefs of the people at 
different periods. The ideas of God which came to expression 
are affected by all these experiences of persons of many degrees 
of ethical and spiritual ripeness. The later editors of the 
books sought to reduce the apparent inconsistencies, more or 
less consciously, but many anomalies remain — fortunately for 
a better understanding of the real course of progress. 

Specialists in Hebrew literature and history must be con- 
sulted for the details. For our present purpose it must suffice 
to indicate a few results of the process. The conception of 
God which emerged out of the long struggle is central: the 
idea of the One Almighty Creator of heaven and earth; 
righteous himself and requiring righteousness in heart and 
conduct of all men; caring little for ceremonies, everything for 
justice, mercy, and humble piety, and demanding obedience 
to holy law in all relations of life, domestic, commercial, 
political. The narrow popular conceptions, the fiercely 
patriotic narrowness of certain parties, the materialistic and 

^ This chapter was nearly completed by Professor Henderson just before 
his death. He would undoubtedly have revised it had he lived; but it seemed 
best to publish it substantially as he left it. — The Editor. 

679 



68o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

catastrophic expectations of the Messiah as avenger and 
restorer of Israel, modify and pollute these lofty conceptions 
but do not altogether obHterate them. Here and there visions 
of international moral and religious comity and even of immor- 
tality widen the horizon of thought. 

Literature. — ^Edward Day, The Social Life of the Hebrews (New York: 
Scribner, 1901); Frank Buhl, Die sozialen Verhdltnisse der Israeliten 
(Berlin: Reuther und Reichard, 1899); P. Kleinert, Die Profeten 
Israels in sozialer Beziehung (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1905); George A. 
Barton, A Sketch of Semitic Origins, Social and Religious (New York: 
Macmillan, 1902) ; W. Robertson Smith, Lectures 07i the Religion of the 
Semites: The Fundamental Institutions (London: Black, 1894); Louis 
Wallis, Sociological Study of the Bible (Chicago: The University of 
Chicago Press, 1 9 1 2) . 

The message of Jesus. — Jesus brought to consciousness 
the infinite worth of personaHty in communion with God the 
Father. Compared with the blessedness of fellowship with 
God, all other interests seemed to him secondary, and might 
be postponed; the essentials are in the Beatitudes, mercy, 
peace, humility, purity of heart. Jesus was not ascetic, not 
indifferent to the hunger, the pain, and the joy of this Hfe; 
but he insisted on the supreme and all-inclusive good, what- 
ever else deserved consideration. He did not attempt to 
make laws nor to organize a church or government; he pro- 
mulgated no social program. Yet when his views of God, 
of friendship, of holiness, of virtue, of the boundless worth 
of a person are accepted, the seeds of social revolution and 
progress are planted. 

The primitive church. — The early followers of Jesus 
huddled together for mutual protection, dreading the coming 
storm of persecution, and attracted also by the enthusiasm 
of devotion to the ascended Lord. They apparently mis- 
apprehended Jesus' words about a swiftly coming Kingdom, 
and even pulled wires to make sure of prominent offices. 
They beheved that the world without was soon to fall with a 
crash; crowns and thrones, merchandise and art, far-seeing 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 68 1 

plans of improvement, were out of the question, too unimpor- 
tant for them to consider. Most of the early Christians were 
of the petty trading class, if not wretched slaves. Few dis- 
tinguished men of state or learning at first deigned to notice 
them. They lived in small circles of intimates; their philan- 
thropy was expressed in alms-giving, with a few simple rules 
to prevent abuses. It was not worth while to try to save 
the institutions of society or to try to mend them; all would 
soon be consumed, and a new earth emerge out of the flames. 
We look in vain for any large constructive policy under such 
conditions. Yet the ferment of divine friendship was there, 
and the little congregations became the nurseries of senti- 
ments which one day would dominate the policies of nations. 
Time passed; knowledge enlarged with experience; the 
heavens did not depart as a scroll; the churches were welded 
together by the bishops into organized institutions; the 
authorities of the Empire were compelled to pay attention to 
the new society, even when they persecuted it. 

Literature. — Suggestive studies of the social aspects of early Chris- 
tianity are found in Troeltsch, Die Soziallehren der christlicher Kirchen 
und Gruppen (Tubingen: Mohr, 19 12); Harnack, Die Mission und 
Aushreitung des Christentums in den ersten 3 J ahrhunderten (Leipzig: 
Hinrichs, 1902; 2d ed., 1906; English translation by Moffat, The 
Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries 
[London: Williams & Norgate, 1904 and 1905]); von Dobschiitz, Die 
urchristlichen Gemeinden (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1902; English translation 
by Morrison, Christian Life in the Primitive Church [London: Williams 
& Norgate, 1904]); Uhlhorn, Die christliche Liebesthdtigkeit in den alien 
Kirche (Stuttgart: Gundert, 1882; English translation by Taylor, 
Christian Charity in the Ancient Church [London: Hamilton, 1883]); 
see also Mathews, The Social Teaching of Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 
1897); Cone, Rich and Poor in the New Testament (New York: Mac- 
millan, 1902); Mathews, The Messianic Hope in the New Testament, 
Part IV (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1904). 

Constantine and the Latin church.— The reign of Con- 
stantine marks a new epoch — the recognition of the church 
by the government, the beginning of ecclesiastical influence 



682 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

in legislation, the possession of property in land and buildings 
by rich people and by the church, social honors for the clergy, 
centralization of episcopal direction, with a Romeward 
trend. The ''decline and fall" of Rome, as a political organi- 
zation, left the West with a memory df an empire and a dream 
of its renewal; or, rather, the "Holy Roman Empire" 
insensibly and gradually grew naturally out of the ancient 
system. When the center of sovereignty was transferred to 
Constantinople, the Bishop of the Eternal City stood alone in 
Italy as the representative of this ideal, and men of genius 
were ready to take advantage of the opportunity, "for the 
greater glory of God." As the legions returned from the 
North defeated, missionaries, by martyrdom, charity, learn- 
ing, pomp, and mystery, carried the ancient culture to the 
Teutons, and Charlemagne tried to learn to write Latin 
and to establish a sort of university at his court. But native 
Teutonic culture was never extinguished; it entered with new 
factors into the movement of civilization; developed the 
free spirit of cities, and gradually a nation; kept on its own 
course in civil and criminal law, with Roman grafts on its 
rude strong trunk of custom; created its own literature; 
finally broke with Roman control into the Humanist and 
Reformation movements, and aspired to supreme influence in 
the science and trade of mankind. 

Mediaeval thought.— In this long and compKcated process 
the doctrines, the feelings, the ideals, the institutions which 
were called " Christianity," were all modified. The Bible was 
quoted by all parties, but by none with the exact primitive 
meaning. Both Plato and Aristotle profoundly influenced 
the theologians, as is seen in Aquinas and Dante. They 
contributed political, economic, ethical, and even religious 
ideas too valuable to be lost. The church from its origin down 
had leaders of sufficient learning and ability to discover and 
appreciate these classic elements and to utilize them. They 
justified themselves for this borrowing process on various 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 683 

grounds ; but the significant fact is that they borrowed with- 
out stint or scruple, and our ''Christianity" is immensely 
richer for their studies. 

The Renaissance. — When with the Renaissance the Greek 
literature was brought to Italy, the ecclesiastics went mad 
over profane and even unclean classics, the storm broke out 
again, and when it cleared the classics at times almost dis- 
placed the Bible in Europe and America as the substantial 
material of academic culture. The assimilation of the ancient 
ideas is so complete that we read them into the simplest 
parables of Jesus and into the rabbinical metaphysics of 
Paul, often to the concealment of their real meaning. The 
critical operation of dissecting out the originals of our stocks 
of ethical and theological conceptions is not yet complete. 
Since all that is true emanates from the one Holy Spirit who 
dwelt in Jesus, we may enjoy our full heritage without anxiety 
about the human sources. ''All things are Christ's; Christ 
is God's." 

The Reformation. — The Reformers helped to liberate 
human spirits from bondage to ecclesiastical absolutism and 
to seek a direct and personal communion with God by a living 
faith. In matters pertaining to church and state the Luther- 
ans and the Calvinists parted company, the latter making 
a larger contribution to the activity of the church in the 
affairs of daily life. Neither entirely escaped from the delu- 
sion that religious orthodoxy can be enforced by political 
power; neither quite attained confidence in the self-evidencing 
truth of religion as a personal experience; instead of relying 
on a pope they leaned on a book for a prop of infallibility. 
But devout men, whether Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, or 
sectarian, all possessed within themselves a life which pro- 
ceeded immediately from God and was not at the mercy of 
changes of creed or church. 

The assimilating power of Christianity. — One of the 
distinctive features of Christianity is its power of assimilation 



684 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

without loss of its genius. Hinduism appropriates and 
swallows up in the gulf of nihilism all sorts of faiths; Chris- 
tianity assimilates novel and diverse elements from Palestine, 
Greece, Rome, and the Far Orient, yet without failing to 
assert uncompromisingly the holiness of the supreme God, 
the redemption which sinful men need, and the hope of 
personal immortality which gives value to time. 

Christianity as a contemporary system of beliefs, life, 
institutions. — To the historical student contemporary Chris- 
tianity reveals many elements, some of them contradictory, 
which have come down to us from many sources. It would 
be easy to show that the doctrines of the churches of today are 
not in a single instance precisely those of the early Chris- 
tians ; , that the various ceremonies and modes of administra- 
tion which characterize multiplied sects could not all be those 
of the apostolic church. If we attempted literally to ''go 
back to Jesus," in the sense of believing and teaching what 
can be found in his words, we should be poorer than we are. 
For evil and for good, every age, experience, system, debate, 
and organization of the past has left its precipitate in our 
institutions, convictions, customs, and modes of thinking. 
The problem is not to find and keep what was known to the 
primitive churches, but what is true, valuable, workable now. 
No one who really believes in Christ can ever fear that a new 
truth will contradict his fundamental ideals. No one who 
intelligently repeats the creed, "I believe in the Holy Ghost," 
can fear to trust Him who is guide into all truth. No one 
should pretend, by legerdemain and juggling with words, to 
deduce his social science from biblical texts. He will do 
well to live in spiritual contact with lawgivers and prophets, 
with the apostles, and with Jesus most of all; but he wrongs 
these by asking them to describe, explain, and interpret the 
phenomena of all lands, peoples, and ages, so as to make 
investigation superfluous and to give countenance to intel- 
lectual indolence. Religion is hfe in the realm of values, 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 685 

above the causal series whose unbroken iron chain belongs 
to the domain of the sciences, including history and all social 
sciences. There is sharp conflict the moment the seer assumes 
the role of statistician and statesman. Nothing is more 
pitiful than the solemn tricks some devout biblical students 
have played with the cryptic symbols of Daniel and the 
dream of Patmos, and the equally mistaken attempt to evolve 
from a spiritual maxim of Jesus a legal constitution for 
family, republic, or industrial system. 

Biblical exegesis cannot be substituted for social science. — 
It is only fair to call attention to the fact that the conclusion 
here stated is entirely opposed to the position of many 
excellent writers who think that we can find in the words of 
Jesus an answer to all the social questions of our age. The 
revelation of God in the Bible was never intended to be a 
substitute for common-sense, invention, and investigation 
according to the requirements of changing situations. 

The proof of this statement is found first of all in the utter 
failure of merely exegetical studies to throw light on any 
modern problem, save by furnishing fundamental ideals and 
religious inspiration. The business man who selected his 
investments by reference to Scripture texts would soon go 
bankrupt. The Canadian farmer who treated the descrip- 
tions of Palestinian agriculture in the Psalms as author- 
ity for his ploughing and planting would perish with his 
children on the fertile prairie of the Northwest. The states- 
man who consulted the Pentateuch or the parables of the 
New Testament for direction in drawing up statutes of social 
legislation would never be returned to the legislature; he 
would probably be sent to a hospital for the mentally dis- 
turbed. The disappointments which have befallen those 
who have tried to foretell events by interpreting the Apoca- 
lypse are familiar to all students of church history. 

Principles of righteousness in morals and religion are 
'Christian" even though they cannot be explicitly and 



686 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

verbally drawn from Old or New Testament. Finding a 
teaching good is a discovery of a revelation of the will of the 
Father, no matter how new. Unless Christ is dead, as his 
enemies claim, he is doing something now. He is not thresh- 
ing out dry chaff, nor moving in a circle like a blind animal 
turning a wheel. He is the everlasting Creator; it is his 
Spirit which is guiding into new truth; and some day we shall 
realize that this is the final and only adequate explanation of 
those great and growing creations which we call science, art, 
progress. 

Literature. — The following books, written by eminent representatives 
of modern Christianity, in an earnest historical spirit, have been influ- 
ential in revealing to the churches the obligations of Christian men to 
improve the outward conditions of life and to increase the incentives to 
upright and useful conduct. Their arguments rest partly on inter- 
pretations of the teachings of the Bible, partly on genial and intelligent 
views entertained by men of wide reading, large experience, and sym- 
pathy for all sorts and conditions of men. They are not based entirely 
on the inductive method of reaching conclusions, and they do not 
furnish adequate material for independent judgment on the subjects dis- 
cussed. They are rather literary than scientific. 

Many of these titles, and also those of books of scientific value, are 
found in A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, by 
Teachers in Harvard University (Cambridge: Harvard University 
Press, 1910), (pp. 216 ff.); it contains many valuable helps for our 
study in all directions ; Ernst Troeltsch, Die Soziallehren der christlichen 
Kirchen und Gruppen (Tubingen: Mohr, 19 12), gives a masterly inter- 
pretation of the development of Christian thought on social problems 
from the time of the primitive church to our own day. The notes are 
an indispensable apparatus of illustrations, quotations of sources, and 
bibliography. See also W. H. Freemantle, The World as the Subject of 
Redemption (London: Rivington, 1885); Lyman Abbott, Christianity 
and Social Problems (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1897); *Fairbaim, 
Religion in History and Modern Life (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 
1894); W. Gladden, Applied Christianity (Boston: Houghton Mifflin 
Co., 1886); R. T. Ely, Social Aspects of Christianity (New York: T. Y. 
Crowell & Co., 1889) ; *Gore, "The Social Doctrine of the Sermon on the 
Mount," Economic Review, April, 1892; *Bosanquet, The Civilization 
of Christendom (London: Sonnenschein, 1893); *Hodges, Faith' and 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 687 

Social Service (New York: Whitaker, 1896); Harnack, Das Wesen des 
Christentums (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1900, and several editions; English 
translation by Saunders, What Is Christianity? [New York: Putnam, 
1901]); Mathews, The Social Teaching of Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 
1897) and The Gospel and the Modern Man (New York: Macmillan, 
1909); Francis G. Peabody, Jesus Christ and the Social Question (New 
York: Macmillan, 1900); Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the 
Social Crisis (New York: Macmillan, 1907) and Christianizing the 
Social Order (New York: Macmillan, 191 2); *Nathusius, Die Mit- 
arheit der Kirche an die Losung der sozialen Frage (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 
1893), a work which approaches in form and method the standard texts 
of social science. 

Valuable historical suggestions and bibliographies are found in 
W. J. Ashley, An Introduction to English Economic History and Theory 
(New York: Putnam, 1894; 3d ed., 1898), which contains a learned and 
sensible discussion of the mediaeval social ethics of usury, business, 
charity; J. Dewey and J. H. Tufts, Ethics (New York: Henry Holt 
& Co., 1908), a strong presentation of the fact that duties are determined 
by the total social situation, with a fine bibliography; J. S. Mackenzie, 
An Introduction to Social Philosophy (New York: Macmillan, 1890), 
a pioneer work in the movement to reveal the ethical life in its relations 
to the community and the fulness of its needs; G. B. Smith, Social 
Idealism and the Changing Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1913); 
E. A. Ross, Sin and Society (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1907). 

II. CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL PROBLEMS 
I. FUNDAMENTAL SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE 

The equipment essential to social leadership. — There 
is no easy substitute for scientific toil. The traditional and 
conventional equipment of the college and theological semi- 
nary of the past has left men helpless in the presence of the 
new situations in which Christian laymen find themselves in 
consequence of the industrial revolution of the last century 
and the problems it has brought. It may possibly be an open 
question with some preachers whether they should ever try to 
help the men of their congregations find the path of righteous- 
ness in this babel and labyrinth of conflicting interests. Per- 
haps many saintly men, while remaining quite innocent of 
knowledge of the actual world, may inspire and comfort and 



688 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

may have the gift of soothing with rhetorical and poetic 
charms. There is a literature of power and beauty which 
belongs to all times, because it has a universal value, and it is 
by no means to be underrated in these materialistic and 
mammon-serving times. Certainly no preacher who has missed 
the opportunity to study social science should pretend to in- 
struct others when he is incompetent himself. 

There are others, however, who believe themselves called 
to give strong intellectual help to honest Christian men seeking 
to do justice in a new world where all ancient experience is 
inadequate, and to proclaim a judgment to come against the 
contemporary and impenitent workers of iniquity. Ministers 
of this type are also needed; and they should at least be 
tolerated by the '' orthodox." In a period of intellectual 
pitilessness and readjustment there is good need of charitable 
judgment on both sides. 

It may prove to be necessary for the church to provide 
for specialization in the ministry, for the Spirit grants a 
diversity of gifts. The artistic preacher has his function and 
his following, but he is likely to jumble statistics. The sci- 
entific temperament inclines to severe and exact reasoning 
on the basis of precise measurement of facts; and there are 
congregations which enjoy and profit by the kind of sermons 
which grow naturally out of such a method. In the good 
time coming, when union churches will displace sectarian 
chapels, it may not be difficult to estabhsh a new and modern 
itinerant system, ''lest one good custom should corrupt the 
world." In a well-trained orchestra the vioKn does not say 
to the violoncello, "I have no need of thee." In a truly 
catholic church we ought to find devout mystics who dwell 
much alone and apart in protracted meditation, and who are 
able to make the invisible seem real. Let them dream their 
dreams but not meddle with strikes. The musician who 
tries to make steel rails imperils his fellow- workmen and loses 
the cunning of his deKcate fingers. 



CHRISTIANrrY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 689 

The knowledge which is required for this novel situation 
is that contained in the modern sciences on which our industrial 
technique, our administration of business and government, is 
based. Preparation for understanding the ethical difficulties 
and obligations of the modern man demands a study, not only 
of the essential ideas of the civilizations of Greece, Rome, 
Palestine, and the Hanseatic cities, but of physics, chemistry, 
physiography, biology, preventive medicine, economics, 
politics, and sociology. A profound blunder has been com- 
mitted by men who have been eager to master in a fortnight all 
the social problems, while they were still without training in 
social science. This is rank quackery and brings the speaker 
or writer into contempt, and it injures church and religion. 

The general social sciences, as economics, political science, 
jurisprudence, sociology, with statistics as a method of 
research which belongs to all, have for their first purpose a 
description of the phenomena of contemporary human 
association and their explanation in terms of antecedents 
and causes. The special or practical social sciences have for 
their function the study of the improvement of methods of 
promoting human welfare by concerted volition guided by 
knowledge and urged by motives. 

Literature. — Further discussion of this point is found in C. R. 
Henderson, Practical Sociology in the Service of Social Ethics (Chicago: 
The University of Chicago Press, 1902). 

2. the historical evolution of social ideals and 
i;nstitutions 

Evolution of the race and its institutions. — The popular 
conception which we have inherited from traditional theology 
is that of a series of disconnected, unrelated events nailed 
together by some constant supernatural, magical, unintelli- 
gible intervention. The modern scientific conception is that 
of an immanent organic force working steadily and perpetu- 
ally without a break and without interference — the idea of 



690 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

evolution. Theism has been held to by partisans of both 
views, but the modern scholar, whether theist or agnostic, 
habitually thinks in terms of evolution. 

The religious leader who has followed only the traditional 
theological curriculum cannot understand the modern man of 
scientific training and cannot himself be understood by modern 
men; they live in different worlds of thought; they speak a 
different language. If a spiritual guide really desires to 
become intelligible to the men of our age, he cannot do better 
than to put himself through as thorough a course of study as 
possible in the fundamental principles of biology, psychology, 
the evolution of animals and man, early culture history, 
anthropology, the evolution of morals and religion. 

Literature. — Fairbanks, Introduction to Sociology (New York: 
Scribner, 1896); F. H. Giddings, Principles of Sociology (New York: 
Macmillan, 1896) and Elements of Sociology (New York: Macmillan, 
1898); W. T. Sumner, Folkways (with fine bibliography) (Boston: 
Ginn & Co., 1907); W. I. Thomas, Source Book for Social Origins (cita- 
tions of sources and authorities) (Chicago: The University of Chicago 
Press, 1909); *L. T. Hobhouse, Morals in Evolution (New York: 
Henry Holt & Co., 1906); E. Westermarck, The Origin and Development 
of the Moral Ideas (London: Macmillan, 1894); W. Bagehot, Physics 
and Politics (New York: Appleton, 1875, 1906); W. E. H. Lecky, 
History of European Morals (New York: Appleton, 1869; 3ded,, 1906); 
John Lubbock, Ongwc/Cm/iza/fow, 5th ed. (New York: Appleton, 1892), 
and Prehistoric Times, 5th ed. (New York: Appleton, 1892); H. S. 
Maine, Ancient Law (London: Murray, 1861, 1909) and Village Com- 
munities in the East and West (London: Murray, 187 1, 1890) ; Herbert 
Spencer, The Study of Sociology (London: Williams & Norgate, 1880) 
and Principles of Sociology (London: Williams & Norgate, 1882-85); 
E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, 3d ed. (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 
1889), and Researches into the Early History of Mankind (London: Mur- 
ray, 1870). 

The importance of historical knowledge. — There is another 
scientific discipline which is necessary to attain a sane view 
of contemporary problems — ^the study of history, the history 
of institutions, and the history of reflective thought about 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 691 

institutions and experiences. Thus there is a history of 
industry and commerce, of poHtical organization and law, of 
art and literature, of domestic life, of religion and ecclesiastical 
forms. There is also a history of the theories of economics, 
politics, ethics, dogma, and ceremonies, of science, inventions, 
arts. 

The great advantage of the evolutionary conception is that 
it tends to produce a chastened hopefulness, prepares the 
mind for inevitable changes, and curbs immoderate haste and 
mob fury. Short views of social conditions paralyze effort, 
because the mind has no help from a survey of the long road 
upward which humanity has already traveled, and of the 
achievements of the human intellect and will in spite of 
innumerable blunders and crimes. 

On the other hand, a study of evolution steadies the mind 
and checks animal and savage impulse by revealing the power 
of habit and custom, the inertia of institutions once estab- 
lished, the necessity of making new adjustments, both external 
and internal, before a new system can be made to work. 

Take for example the questions which just now are so diffi- 
cult to discuss with philosophic calm and clear vision : those 
relating to the control of industry and commerce. The pas- 
sion which formerly made the discussion of theology and 
politics so spectacular has died down ; the partisan instincts of 
mobs now concentrate upon the mastery of the instruments 
of production — land, machines, railways, telegraphs, banks. 
Never was self-possession and freedom from prejudice so 
necessary to avert shipwreck; never was it so difficult as now 
to be just to antagonists. The evolutionary conception may 
become general enough to help us past the rocks and shoals 
which now seem so ominous. 

The conservatives who now control society's capital and 
direct it are partly right in declaring that their services are 
useful and necessary; that the people have not yet developed 
that degree of intelligence, morality, loyalty, and skill in 



692 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

government which is necessary for the management of great 
industries through elected representatives on salary. 

But the conservatives often err in supposing that the 
capitalist-manager system is ancient and eternal, for it is 
neither; it is recent in origin, is being rapidly transformed, 
is even now competing with both hand industries and public 
industries, and Utopians see signs of its gradually going into 
the hands of receivers. A genuinely evolutionary view would 
modify much of the dogmatism which is far too prevalent 
in industrial disputes. 

The main aspects of the development of industry and 
commerce. — It is impossible to interpret the religious life 
and thought of the Hebrew people and primitive Christians 
without a careful study of the stages of development; so 
it is equally impossible to understand the capitalist-manager 
system of our age without keeping before our minds the ante- 
cedent forms of industry out of which our system has grown. 
The studies of Schmoller, Grundriss der allgemeinen Volkswirt- 
schaftslehre (Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1 900-1 904); 
Blicher, Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft, 8th ed. (Tubin- 
gen: Laupp, 1910); Sombart, e.g., Der moderne Kapitalismus 
(Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1902; English translation, 
The Quintessence of Capital [New York: E. P. Button & Co., 
19 1 5]) , and Sozialismus und soziale Bewegung im ig Jahrhundert 
(Jena: Fischer, 1896; Y^nglhh. tx^xi^ldition, Socialism and the 
Social Movement [New York: Putnam, 1898]), and other recent 
economists enable us to present this evolution in its essential 
features with a high degree of certainty and clearness. ' Think- 
ing chiefly of European and American history, we are able to 
discover the following stages: 

a) Primitive industrial conditions. — First on the horizon 
of our knowledge are the pastoral groups settling down to 
agriculture, each man cultivating the soil and producing only 
what his own household requires, with no excess product 
for the market. The individual householder belongs to a 
village community and later passes under the protection and 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEM^ 693 

control of a feudal landlord. Princes, bishops, and knights 
have large domains, but also live on what their estates, with 
contributions from vassals, can produce. All live near the 
edge of starvation, and in times of scarcity the mortahty 
from famine and disease is high. Capital is small. The 
villagers are exposed to the exactions of nobles, with some 
protection from the village organization; and the struggles 
of classes begin in the resistance of peasants to exploitation by 
their social superiors. 

b) Mediaeval industry and trade. — During the early 
mediaeval period the rise of towns and cities offers a new 
starting-point of industrial, political, and moral development. 
With improved methods of agriculture and stock-breeding, 
with better roads and boats, the surplus product of the fields 
finds a local market in towns in exchange for the manufactured 
commodities made by the craftsmen. Only in articles of 
luxury, such as spices and jewels, is there trade with distant 
regions. Bulky articles cannot be transported far. Pro- 
ducers and consumers are personal acquaintances, and each 
man has his customers. Slowly a few men of higher ability 
and enterprise accumulate capital, undertake larger con- 
tracts, employ money in exchange instead of barter. Popu- 
lation becomes more dense; division of labor is necessary; 
social classes are differentiated; conflicts arise over divi- 
sion of profits, use of markets, taxes and tributes, guild 
regulations. 

c) The downfall of feudalism. — From the fifteenth to the 
eighteenth century the middle-sized states and the modern 
great nations emerge under the royal houses, as in Germany, 
France, Spain, England. The feudal lords and the church are 
held responsible to kings; the supremacy of the papacy is 
weakened and falls; capital funds are enlarged and the con- 
centration of wealth and trade in a few hands becomes more 
frequent and manifest; new trades arise to meet new wants; 
the Reformation transforms the political and spiritual direc- 
tion of society. 



694 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

d) Modern industrial conditions. — With the colonial policies 
following the discovery of sea routes to India and America 
trade becomes world-wide ; the village market widens into an 
intercontinental market; the vast new enterprises require 
greater capital, larger numbers of workmen under one 
management, joint-stock corporations with limited liabiHty, 
division of labor, increased use of machinery. The invention 
of the steam engine still further calls for more compact popu- 
lation, larger masses of capital, more stringent regulation and 
discipline of labor. The industrial commander whose energy 
and ability, rather than refinement and humanity, give him 
first place becomes ascendant, while priests, scholars, and 
feudal nobility retreat into the background. The last 
word of the eighteenth century is freedom and individualism; 
and with free trade and free competition the business man 
becomes a prince, capital becomes colossal, trade unions are 
fought to their death, legal protection is opposed tooth and 
claw, and monstrous cruelties, with the degradation of work- 
ing people, at last shock and alarm the nations and awaken 
a social conscience. The reaction sets in about i860 with an 
assertion of the moral duty of the state to all its citizens. 
Over against the huge corporations with their vast financial 
and political dominion rise the national federations of labor, 
the extension of the suffrage, the increased politicalpower of the 
wage-earners, and the international organization of socialism. 
We now live in the midst of a transformation more significant 
than the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of modern nation- 
alities, or the Reformation. We cannot yet see clearly for 
the smoke of battle, our nearness to the contestants, and our 
personal participation in the passions of the conflict. 

The church and modem industrialism. — The church itself, 
once mistress of empires, is stripped of all authority and is 
reduced to a voluntary association protected by the state; 
its claim to infallibility is disowned. The problem is alto- 
gether new and the revolution finds ecclesiastical leaders con- 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 695 

fused and unprepared. They go out with ancient bows and 
arrows to resist rapid-firing fieldpieces and titanic cannon; 
their mediaeval commands are mocked ahke by masters and 
men. The movement sweeps along as if the clergy did not 
exist. The echoes of ancient creeds sound hollow and faint in 
the roar of the contemporary struggle of interests. And 
yet the church carries in its traditions and its heart the only 
principle which can assure the future of mankind, if only its 
prophets learn in time how to interpret and apply it to the 
problems of our own age. 

The need of historical perspective. — There are radicals 
who still think in terms of magic and miracle, and who make 
their dupes believe that by some universal strike or other 
''direct action" the world will be made over in a few hours. 
They are like a band of Chinese pirates who stole a complicated 
and costly electric machine from a railway station in Kwang- 
tung Province and then did not know how to make it function. 
If the I.W.W. could by some cataclysm take possession 
tomorrow of all the mines, mills, and railways of the country, 
would they be able to use them to advantage, or at all ? 
Those whose mode of thought is evolutionary are convinced 
that democracy has come to stay, but that it has much to 
learn; that boys cannot do the work of men, nor crowds 
of turbulent "reds," trained to destroy machinery, be long 
trusted with its direction. It is true, the alternative is some- 
times provoking — ^paying a few "Napoleons of finance" 
fabulous sums for their as yet indispensable services, while 
submitting to their taunts that it is all their own "pri- 
vate business," into which the public has no concern nor 
right to intrude. The only possible mode of avoiding tragic 
conflict under these conditions of passion and prejudice 
arrayed against passion and prejudice is to cultivate the 
historic sense. 

Literature. — See the bibliography in chap, viii, p. 473; also on 
pp. 708 and 709 of this chapter. 



696 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

The evolution of ideas and ideals. — Not only industry 
and commerce but all other activities of mankind are in this 
life-current of evolution and should be studied in the same 
spirit. There is a measure of truth in the "economic inter- 
pretation of history," which finds in the modifications of the 
industrial organization the clue to changes in art, science, 
morals, religion, philosophy; but this interpretation is inade- 
quate. Physical changes do affect thinking, but constant 
experience and common-sense reveal the other side of reality: 
we men modify things by thinking and by action. The 
capitalistic system is a mode of belief, and if socialism ever 
dominates the world it will be because men have thought 
upon it, imagined it, resolved to have it, and voted it. It 
is amusing to see the immense energy of the leaders of the 
''materialistic" school who teach fatalism and practice 
idealism with all their might. 

We must be content in this scant sketch barely to indi- 
cate various aspects of the evolution of man's spiritual 
life which are so amply and ably treated in competent works 
on the history of the evolution of the sciences, of the techni- • 
cal inventions and processes, of the fine arts, of ethics, of 
religion, of theology, and of philosophy. The domestic, 
educational, political, and professional institutions have 
passed through various stages, and each change in all de- 
partments of thought or action has set up profound changes 
in all directions. 

We have already touched upon the evolution of Chris- 
tianity itself, of its ideas, teachings, organization, adminis- 
tration in the church. This course of development ran 
parallel with that of art, politics, science, industry, law, and 
there has been constant interaction and reciprocal influence 
among all the movements of the human spirit. Culture 
history ought not to be conceived as an evolution outside the 
will of humanity, but as the very deed of humanity. Events 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 697 

do not happen; they are made, and made by the human 
win. 

Literature. — Suggestive hints are found in Windelband, History of 
Philosophy (translation by J. H. Tufts, New York, Macmillan, 1901) ; 
Eucken, Die Lehensanschauungen der grossen Denker (Leipzig: Veit, 
1890; 5th ed., 1904; English translation by Hough and Gibson, The 
Problem of Human Life [New York: Scribner, 1909]); Spencer, Prin- 
ciples of Sociology (London: Williams & Norgate, 1882-85); Compayre, 
Histoire critique des doctrines de P education en France depuis le seizieme 
siecle (Paris: Hachette, 1879; English translation by Payne, The 
History of Pedagogy [Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1886; 2d ed., 1907]). 

Evolution of poor relief. — Christianity is essentially 
charity in the deepest, finest, and most real meaning. The 
first organization of the churches provided for relief of 
the distressed, widows, and orphans; and this function of the 
churches has never been abandoned, though it has often 
been perverted. In the simple life of the small primitive con- 
gregations the faithful brought their offerings of money or 
commodities and laid them before the bishops for distribution; 
and both men and women were appointed to assist the elders 
in the administration. The officers became more numerous 
and specialized with the growth of the church. In Greece 
and Italy the churches took on the form of associations which 
were protected by law and which, in addition to regular 
membership fees, had an established custom of offering gifts 
for the poor in connection with worship. To the ''love 
feasts" the indigent were invited and there satisfied their 
hunger. With the cessation of heathen persecutions, the 
recognition of Christianity as the state religion, the increase 
of war and poverty, the acquisition of estates and enormous 
incomes, the principles and methods of relief changed. Alms- 
giving was often impulsive and without method, and the 
largesses of bishops often encouraged mendicancy without 
preventing suffering. The causes of misery were too deep and 
powerful to be cured with doles, and the church had no policy 



698 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

of prevention. The belief in the merit of almsgiving without 
regard to its effects on the poor became popular. Hospices, 
hospitals, monasteries, and orders gradually took the place of 
the congregational and personal-relief system of the early 
church. The road to the church door was the resort of 
beggars. Ignorance of medical science made the devotion of 
merciful Christians impotent to stay the pestilence, heal the 
leper, and restore reason to the insane. The history of 
mediaeval charity is a tragedy of errors, a record of super- 
stition, but also a subHme revelation of consecration and 
mercy struggling in the dark. With the rise of commerce and 
free cities in the twelfth century and later the merchant class 
rose in influence and gradually transferred the direction of 
relief from the clergy to the laity, this tendency being more 
marked in Northern Europe. The Lutheran Reformation did 
not improve methods of relief; wars and theological con- 
troversies paralyzed the hopeful beginning in the sixteenth 
century. The Calvinistic churches developed ecclesiastical 
and civil relief, while England (in 1601) established the first 
poor law, on the principle that the entire Christian nation 
ought to combine for the relief of its weakest member; and 
this principle is shaping the policies of all modern nations. 
The Humanism of the sixteenth century and the ''Illumina- 
tion'' of the eighteenth century went beyond Lutheranism 
and Calvinism in demanding that religion should carry the 
torch of science to light the dark ways of struggling humanity. 
In modern times that regard for the lowly which once was 
limited to feeble little conventicles has become the accepted 
obligation of all the mightiest governments of the earth. The 
charity of churches and of voluntary associations is still pre- 
cious and necessary but in the main auxiliary to the institu- 
tions of the commonwealth. 

The development of modem social-political ideals. — 
Gradually, since the Reformation, ''social politics" has 
been differentiated from poor relief; friendship and justice 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 699 

now aim rather to prevent misery than to palKate it, and to 
make men self-supporting rather than to cultivate helpless, 
whining parasites and beggars. 

Christianity, though it did not absolutely create something 
out of nothing, published and developed in the world finer 
and higher notions of the value of personality, the dignity 
of sonship in God, the reality of brotherhood in the human 
race. Local sympathy gained a cosmopoKtan character. The 
physical world and the glory of empire would vanish in flame 
and earthquake, but God and the soul were imperishable. 
Such ideas as these, with a gospel of redemption and hope, took 
captive the rude but vigorous and conquering barbarians. 
Augustine gathered up in a great system of theology the 
ideas of Christianity, neo-Platonism, Origen, and Plotinus, 
and provided a philosophy for the church. 

Arabian physicians of the Middle Ages became acquainted 
with the natural science of Aristotle and other Greek phi- 
losophers. The contacts of the Crusades and the travels of 
Jewish merchants brought this learning to the scholars of 
Europe and helped the tendency to study, nature directly and 
not merely by tradition. And now church and state seem to 
be seeking a way, not of suppressing each other, but of serving, 
through diverse methods, the welfare of mankind in the 
partnership of unifying ideals and scientific procedure. 

Literature. — Uhlhorn, Die Christliche Liebestdtigkeit, 3 vols. (Stutt- 
gart: Gundert, 1882-; Vol. I translated into English under title, Chris- 
tian Charity in the Ancient Church [London: Hamilton, 1883]), the 
standard book, based on sources, and Lutheran in doctrine; G. Ratzinger, 
Geschichte der kirchliche Armenpflege (Catholic author) (Freiburg: 
Herder, 1884); C. S. Loch, Charity and Social Life (London: Mac- 
millan, 1910); *L. Lallemand, Histoire de la Charite, 5 vols. (Catholic) 
(Paris: Picard, 1902-12); C. R. Henderson (editor), Modern Methods of 
Charity (New York: Macmillan, 1904). 

3. PERSONAL PREPARATION FOR LEADERSHIP IN SOCIAL SERVICE 

Education in the social sciences. — In the high school. — 
If the studies of childhood and youth could be directed with 



700 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

reference to large and effective co-operation for service of the 
community, they would certainly include some acquaintance 
with the French and German languages, in addition to Eng- 
lish, as necessary tools of knowledge and vehicles of com- 
munication. The usual elementary subjects should include 
a great deal of ''nature-study" and familiarity with the pic- 
tured life of primitive peoples. In the secondary school it is 
not too much to ask for an introduction to biology and the 
elements of personal, domestic, and industrial hygiene, the 
history of the United States and its political institutions, and 
the service rendered by the local "and general governments. 
Books and articles in German and French should be read on 
these subjects, and interesting knowledge should be obtained 
by young persons through these languages. The well- trained 
teachers will be able to apply mathematics to simple statistical 
surveys of the neighborhood; friendly activities, guided 
by experts, will keep alive social sympathies; and provision 
for practical expression of ethical convictions and emotion 
should be made in high school and church school for adoles- 
cents. The Bible should be studied as the record of a life- 
process and as a stimulus to altruistic endeavor. 

Literature. — See the article of J. M. Gillette, American Journal of 
Sociology, January, 1914, on "Social Studies in Elementary Schools." 

In the college and university. — In college the candidate 
for the ministry and for religious service should be kept in 
constant contact with social movements, both in his studies 
and in his activities. The development of character depends 
quite as much on habits of unselfish service as on the precepts 
of morality, the exhortations of the preacher, and habits of 
worship. Nothing is said here of mathematics and literature, 
the high value of which is assumed. The studies which pre- 
pare most directly for social leadership are physiography, 
geography, history, statistics (as a necessary tool of all the 
sciences), a survey of the whole field of the social sciences. 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 701 

biology, psychology, economics, political science, general 
sociology, ethics, history of philosophy, logic, and a study 
of selected problems of social amelioration accompanied by 
wisely supervised participation in some forms of service. 
Such a course would establish habits of keen observation, 
induction, discovery of causes, forming of judgments, interest 
in general welfare. In the Senior year of college and during 
the years of graduate study the candidate for social leader- 
ship in the church should take up more specialized subjects. 
Church history, biblical study, pastoral duties, and religious 
education may be closely correlated with social science. In 
the study of theology and the Bible the social motive and 
ideals will be made clear and potent; in the study of church 
history the evolution of Christian Hfe in relation to law, 
government, poor relief, social poHtics, slavery, domestic 
conduct, customs, education, etc., ought to find a large place, 
while time could be saved by passing over the study of dead 
controversies about creed and ceremonies. The problems of 
social surveys, statistical investigations, the amelioration 
of conditions in cities and rural neighborhoods, the care 
of immigrants, and social service in foreign fields should find 
a place. On the basis of previous studies of elementary 
economics, politics, and law the fields of social poHtics, labor 
legislation, trade u:gionism, and socialism should receive 
attention. The most vital principles of poor relief and 
of the social treatment of the anti-social class should be 
familiar. 

Curriculum of social sciences. — We here present a curricu- 
lum drawn up by Professor L. C. Marshall, with a schematic 
diagram of some of the courses actually offered and taught 
in several universities of large equipment. Many of the fun- 
damental courses are given in well-equipped colleges or even 
in secondary schools. 

The accompanying diagram serves to outline in a broad way the 
organization of studies in preparation for philanthropic service. The 



702 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

first aim (see diagram) is to secure for the student a broad cultural 
foundation in the main divisions of human knowledge. Above this 
foundation is placed a broad survey of the social sciences. In these 
social-science survey courses the future business man, the future social 
worker, the future civil servant, and the future teacher and investigator 
in the various social-science departments will be led to appreciate the 
relationships of their future specialized tasks to the operations of the rest 
of organized society. Even after the social-science survey has been com- 
pleted narrow specialization may not occur. The work of the third 
year consists of basic semi-cultural, semi-professional courses designed to 
give the student a clearer appreciation of the organization of modem 
society than was possible in the social-science survey. The academic 
spirit (using this expression in the objectionable sense) is. guarded against 
by introducing a considerable amount of contact with actual conditions, 
by lectures on technical matters by outside experts, by instruction 
through the case-method as far as is at present possible, and by requiring 
that the equivalent of at least three months shall be spent in actual 
service. The final stage is the distinctly professional work, partly of 
undergraduate, partly of graduate grade, in which the student cultivates 
intensively his own special field. The student who has traversed these 
stages should go out with some idea of social needs, with some zeal for 
serving those needs, with some appreciation of the rights, the privileges, 
and the obligations of other members of society, and with training which 
should enable him to do his work efficiently. 

In the administration of the work of the School of Commerce and 
Administration of the University of Chicago the following features are 
significant: 
I. The work is organized on the hypothesis that the technical or pro- 
fessional work should rest upon a broad" foundation of work in 
biology, psychology, history, political economy, sociology, law, and 
government. Full preparation accordingly contemplates at least 
one year of graduate work over and above a properly selected under- 
graduate curriculum. 
II. There is no general or machine curriculum in either the under- 
graduate or the graduate work in this School. Each student's 
course is a matter of personal adjustment and depends upon previ- 
ous training, present aptitudes, and expected future occupation. 
III. The equivalent of at least three months of field work must either 
precede or accompany the technical or professional work. 
[The diagram is to be read upward from the foundation to the 
specialized courses at the summit.] 



\DLiiL il>l 



PREP) BELOW 



a) iu 
15 



Elemej 
of LcjChild Study 



iety. Tb 



d years of, and History, 



and paits in (1) English 
Mogicalpiust be met. 



Fourth 
year 
and 

Graduate 
work 



(Each of the " 
smaller 
rectangles 
equals one or 
more majors; 
i.e., a course 
offered, four or 
five times per 
week for a 
quarter, twelve 
weeks) 



Third year 
College work 



High 

School 

and 

Junior 

College 

work 



DIAGRAM OF COURSES AVAILABLE IN PREPARATION FOR PHILANTHROPIC SERVICE 



THE SEMINAR: OPEN TO STUDENTS SATISFACl DRILY PREPARED IN ONE OR MORE OF THE FELDS INDICATED BELOW 



I 






T 



T 



T 

I 

I 

I 



T 



I 



I 



T 



I 

i 

I 



T 

I 

I 

I 

1 



Introduction to the Study of Society. This is characteristically a second-year course. 



The Social Science Survey. This work is generally taken in the first and second years of college. It includes Psychology, Political Science, Political Economy. Ethics, and History. 
Foundation. This includes the work of the high school, the first year and part of the second year in college. Certain minimum requirements in (1) English 



Fourth 
year 
and 

Graduate 
work 



Composition and Literature, (2) Mathematics, (3) the Physical and Biological Sciences, (4) the Social Sciences, and (5) Modem Language must be met. 1/ 



High 
/ School 
[ and 

Junior 
( College 
\ work 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 703 

At first sight this scheme of courses seems to bewilder 
and discourage. More careful study and inquiry of compe- 
tent instructors will make it clear that there is a progressive 
movement from the elementary and broadly fundamental 
studies to those which are special and professional, intended 
for advanced students who seek to fit themselves for some 
form of public service. The young student cannot make a 
wise selection without personal advice. The courses chosen 
should be carefully arranged in a series for each student, so 
that he will become a master of some branches while gaining 
a broad general view of the relations of sciences and of life- 
callings and relationships. Without very careful planning in 
advance the young person may scatter his efforts, become an 
intellectual vagabond, and end by knowing no one subject 
thoroughly. 

All these academic studies should be driven home by visits 
of observation, carefully planned to discover methods of 
constructive work rather than the abnormal and pathological 
aspects of vice. Observation must be extended by actual 
practice in connection with well-organized societies for 
philanthropy and civic improvement, under trained and 
practical administrators. 

Teamwork among professors in the theological school 
would be promoted by keeping in the central office of the dean 
or president rather full syllabi of courses given, so as to econo- 
mize the teaching force, avoid duplication, and discover 
neglected areas. The indications of a modern curriculum of 
social science given above will show how various specialists 
can best co-operate, and that without losing anything of 
independence of thought or method of investigation. 

IV. ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS 

Every thinker must classify social problems, because they 
are too numerous and bewildering for orderly discussion until 
they are grouped; but every thinker is likely to make his 



704 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

own arrangement. We may deal with this subject by means 
of two categories: (i) the social groups, and (2) the com- 
munity interests. 

I. THE SOCIAL GROUPS 

These are provisionally distinguished as follows: the 
family, the rural neighborhood, the urban community, the 
commonwealth, the nation, the international conventions. 
The church is the imperfect but actual and unique representa- 
tive of the Kingdom of God, which is not only an international 
but a universal community, having yet unrealized ideals, but 
having also actual incorporation in this earth. The only part 
of the Kingdom of God we know is what we see in the present 
world. 

Within all these communities we discover subgroups or 
classes having certain likenesses, needs, and interests, such as 
the abnormals, the defectives, the anti-social — all of them sub- 
social, and in various degrees '' alienated" from normal social 
relations and activities, and requiring from normal society 
special modes of treatment, each with its technique. 

The minister is not and cannot be a specialist in social 
science if he does his duty as a pastor. He will not be master 
of any particular department of public service. His youth- 
ful studies in this field must therefore be limited to the funda- 
mental sciences, to the broad surveys, and to one or two 
fields of practice which will give him methods of observation 
and judgment. To secure this preparation, begun in the high 
school, he need not neglect the essential disciplines of the 
divinity school. In the best schools of theology time is 
conserved by pruning off minute investigations of dead issues 
which this age has no time to discuss. 

The training of social workers. — But the minister is not 
the only Christian leader in whose education the Christian 
community is interested. If the church is to be counted as a 
force and an assistant in the modern world, it must recognize 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 705 

the variety of gifts, talents, and professions through which 
the Spirit reveals God. to man and builds up the Kingdom 
(Rom., chap. 12; I Cor., chap. 12). We are providentially 
called to teach and train Christian young men and women 
who will be specialists in the fields of public service and 
private philanthropy: teachers, investigators, statisticians, 
settlement residents, playground and social-center directors, 
physical directors, secretaries of the Y.M.C.A., organizers of 
mutual-benefit associations, advocates of social legislation, 
secretaries for social- welfare work, officers of prisons, reforma- 
tories, and institutions for defective and abnormal persons, etc. 

Starting from our economic system, which is now char- 
acterized by freedom of contract, legal and political equality, 
private property secured by law and moral beliefs, with 
capitalistic management dominant, we come to the wage- 
earning class of operatives, the ''industrial group," with its 
own needs, interests, ideals, aspirations, and demands. 

A rudimentary class seems to be emerging in the second 
crop of capitalist-manager families, the ''leisure class," with 
its own ideals, attitudes, fashions, activities, and modes of 
influence. 

Literature. — See T. B. Veblin, Theory of the Leisure Classes (New 
York: Macmillan, 1889). 

2. COMMUNITY INTERESTS 

Associated effort, when it is conscious and intelligent, is 
directed toward common ends. Clear thinking and effective 
action depend on a distinct and well-grounded notion of 
social aims and ideals. These common interests are revealed 
by the conduct and institutions of men; they manifest their 
inward desires by their outward deeds. The analysis of human 
motives has been made by every writer on ethics from Aristotle 
and Plato to our own time. The two most elementary inter- 
ests we share with animals, because they are essential to the 
existence of human beings — hunger and reproductive impulses. 



7o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Sumner adds vanity and fear, which also are manifested by 
our humbler fellow-creatures. All these primitive desires 
cling to all men and cannot be totally extinguished by the 
most devout ascetic until senility or the paralysis of approach- 
ing death extinguishes the last flickering flame of exhausted 
nature. Hunger and love may be regulated, tamed, brought 
under legal, moral, and religious control; but they persist 
because without them the very race would soon disappear. 
In all social plans these elemental forces must be reckoned 
with. 

Literature. — For suggestive discussions of the principles of social 
interests see A, W. Small, General Sociology (Chicago: The University 
of Chicago Press, 1905), and E. A. Ross, Foundations of Sociology 
(New York: Macmillan, 1905). 

Social regulation. — In a state of society so early that no 
clear record has been left in document or on monument 
men discovered that social life could not go on without some 
measures to secure order, safety of life and limb, and the 
possession of property. The evolution of government, of 
civil and criminal law, was caused by this necessity, which was 
even felt among the higher animals before humanity emerged. 
In our own time the recognition of these interests has given 
support to a vast and complex system of social control, direc- 
tion, and regulation. 

Property. — In order to support individual existence, to 
supply the needs of offspring, to add comforts and luxuries 
to necessities, to gratify vanity and desire for influence and 
distinction, men have combined to secure commodities. The 
acquisition of property is primarily the result of industry, of 
applying human wit and labor to the materials and forces 
of nature; but, secondarily, property has been acquired by 
robbery and war, by cunning and fraud, by the mission of 
legal privilege and the exploitation of slaves, of women, of 
children, of ignorant men. The economic interest is at the 
root of all industries, trades, commerce, and finance, however 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 707 

complex these may become. Business has become an end for 
its own sake, the ultimate ends of life being forgotten in the 
eagerness of the pursuit, and thus wealth has in a measure lost 
connection with welfare, and the devotion to money has 
become idolatry. 

Culture interests. — Culture interests are those which 
distinguish civilized men from the lower„ animals and from 
savage races. It is true that some law of beauty, goodness, 
and religion may be found in animals and in the lower races 
of mankind, for in the process of evolution there is no violent 
break with the past at any point. The spiritual not only 
arises after the natural but gradually and imperceptibly out of 
the natural, as the flower out of the growing plant. But as dis- 
tinctly characteristic and differentiated interests, art, science, 
morality, politics, and religion are achievements of the human 
spirit, and to these goods of civiKzation contributions have 
been made from the dawn of human consciousness. Here and 
there a man of genius has added something conspicuous and 
remarkable to these higher possessions, and the gift of his 
soul has become his monument. But inventions, languages, 
faiths, beautiful lines and forms, proverbs, folk-lore, moralities, 
legal conceptions, are far more the result of the universal 
activities of humble and nameless human beings than of 
distinguished and famous leaders. The desires for these 
higher satisfactions become motives to social effort. Men 
combine in many ways to secure them, as in musical societies, 
clubs, schools, museum associations, local and general govern- 
ments. The measure in which these satisfactions are enjoyed 
and the extent to which the people share in them give us a 
standard of civilization, a test of progress. Statistics furnish 
us with a scientific method of applying the standard to the 
actual working of institutions and laws. 

Literature. — Useful works on the scope and relations of the social 
sciences are: W. Wundt, Logik (Methodenlehre, Bd. 2, Abt. 2, Stutt- 
gart: Enke, 1907); A. W. Small, General Sociology (with many refer- 



7o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

ences) (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1905); L. F. Ward 
Outlines of Sociology (New York: Macmillan, 1898); K. Menger 
Methode der Sozialwissenschaften (Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1883) 
*Dietzel, Theoretische Sozialokonomik, I, 4 (Leipzig: Winter, 1895) 
*E. A. Ross, Foundations of Sociology (New York: Macmillan, 1905) 
*C. A. EUwood, Sociology in Its Psychological Aspects (New York: Apple- 
ton, 191 2); E. S. Bogardus, Introduction to the Social Sciences (Los 
Angeles: Ralston, 19 13). 

A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects (Cambridge: 
Harvard University Press, 1910) will be found useful here. 

The following economists have written in the modern spirit with 
learning and insight and with humane purpose: J. S. Mill, Principles 
of Political Economy (London: Parker, 1848; an excellent edition. 
New York: Appleton, 1907); G. SchmoUer, Grundriss der allgemeinen 
Volkswirtschaftslehre (Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1 900-1 904) 
(vast bibliography of German literature); Ueber einige Grundfragen 
der Socialpolitik und der Volkswirtschaftslehre (Leipzig: Duncker und 
Humblot, 1904) ; Charles Gide; Principles of Political Economy (Boston: 
D. C. Heath & Co., 1904); R. T. Ely, Socialism and Social Reform 
(New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1894) and Outlines of Economics 
(New York: Macmillan, 1908); Henry Rogers Seager, Introduction to 
Economics, 3d ed. (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1905) ; F. W. Taussig, 
Principles of Economics (New York: Macmillan, 1911); Alfred Marshall, 
Principles of Economics, 5th ed.. Vol. I (New York: Macmillan, 1907); 
Thomas Nixon Carver, The Distribution of Wealth (New York: Mac- 
millan, 1904); Karl Biicher, Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft, 8th ed. 
(Tubingen: Laupp, 1910; English translation by Wickett, Industrial 
Evolution [New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1901]). 

Social problems. — These are the questions which men 
put to practical reason and science in regard to the best 
methods of stimulating, harmonizing, and universalizing the 
satisfactions of the social interests. The desires are found 
in all human beings; the specific methods of attaining the 
satisfactions must be adapted to the peculiarities of each group 
in the nation; and therefore each stage of evolution, each dis- 
covery and invention, each increase of population, offers a 
new problem for solution. The solution must take into 
account the particular needs of each group in its relations to 
all other groups of the nation. 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 709 

Literature. — Professor Small has sketched many of these problems 
in his General Sociology (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 
1905) in the section entitled ''Conspectus of Social Achievements," 
many of which are yet to be achieved. 

Social technique. — To increase, universalize, and harmon- 
ize these satisfactions in each group requires a method or 
methods. There is a best and wisest and most effective way; 
it is the business of social science and statesmanship to discover 
this way; it is knowable, but never altogether known. The 
causal forces which explain the present may be utilized by 
human intelKgence and concerted action to promote socially 
desirable ends. Theoretical social science culminates in 
discovery of causes, practical social science in a foundation of 
knowledge for desirable achievements. 

So far as the technique has been mastered in a high degree 
it is best known by a body of specialists or experts; but 
usually it cannot be effectively carried into life without the 
intelligent co-operation of a considerable body of laymen. 
Hence the need of popular education in social science; for 
science simply means common knowledge made as compre- 
hensive, reliable, and systematic as possible, which is precisely 
that knowledge which is most effective in action and conduct. 

Literature. — Good general works are: L. F, Ward, Applied Sociology 
(Boston: Ginn & Co., 1906); C. A. EUwood, Sociology and Modern 
Social Problems (New York: American Book Co., 1910) ; *C. R. Hender- 
son, Social Elements (New York: Scribner, 1898) and The Social Spirit 
in America (Chicago: Scott, Foresman & Co., 1901) (elementary and 
popular in form); W. D. P. Bliss, New Encyclopedia of Social Reform 
(New York : Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1898) . 

Important works of reference are: Eandworterhuch der Staatswissen- 
schafkn (Jena: Fischer, 1908-); *Palgrave, Dictionary of Political 
Economy (New York: Macmillan, 19 10); Schonberg, Handbuch der 
politischen Oekonomie, 3d ed. (Tiibingen: Laupp, 1890); Rubinow, 
Social Insurance (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 19 13); Frankel and 
Dawson, W orkingmen' s Insurance in Europe (New York: Charities 
Pub. Committee, 19 10); Twenty-fourth Report United States Bureau 
of Labor; C. R. Henderson, Industrial Insurance in the United States 



7IO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909); *Hart and Mc- 
Laughlin, Cyclopedia of American Government (New York: Appleton, 
1 9 14); American Journal oj Sociology (Chicago: The University of 
Chicago Press) ; Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social 
Science (Philadelphia). 

V. CHRISTIANITY IN RELATION TO SOCIAL PROBLEMS 

It remains to indicate the service which the Christian 
churches, as bearers of Christian thought and ideals, can 
render in the work of stimulating, universalizing, and harmon- 
izing these efforts of the collective will to promote human 
welfare. 

I. THE IDEALS OF THE CHURCH 

Only think what the Christian religion signifies! ''God 
so loved the world," loved all the people; as Creator, Father, 
Providence, Redeemer, Friend, our God, as Jesus taught, 
lives for us. He gives us life and the will to live; creates 
appetites and desires and provides for their satisfaction; 
and all he creates is essentially good. The divine Spirit is at 
the heart of all our arts, sciences, reformations, the very fer- 
ment in all the restless agitation for improvement. The 
demagogue is a mere caricature of the evolutionary ambitions 
which seethe in human history. The end is abundant, rich, 
varied, many-sided, harmonious life. It is this infinite, crea- 
tive, active divine life which came to noblest expression in 
Jesus, which is manifested in the development of the human 
spirit and all its institutions, laws, governments. The 
''Kingdom of God" has a more splendid aim than that of 
the conventicle of pietists intent on saving their own souls; 
a larger scope than ecclesiastical intrigue and ambition. If 
we could only set before us all that is required for the perfec- 
tion of personality, for the order and progress of the world, 
for the quickening of intellectual curiosity, for the finest 
expression of beauty, for grace and courtesy, for intellectual 
mastery of the knowable universe through the sciences, for 
harmony, friendship, and worship — all this would be found 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 711 

at home within the idea of the ''Kingdom of God." Inter- 
national law has statesmanship ; but is it petty and provincial 
when compared with the universal realm opened up to us by 
the vision of Jesus, Son of God. 

It is for this idea that the church stands, if only it could 
realize its unique and sublime task; if only its leaders could 
appreciate their role in relation to business and philanthropy, 
to artists, explorers, scientists, statesmen, philosophers, poets. 
The church and its ministry have yet to learn how all-inclusive 
their mission is, how all the nations must bring their glory 
and honor into the city of God, whether they will it or not. 
We have been exclusive, self -centered, when we might have 
been inclusive, comprehensive, catholic. We have desired to 
dominate and monopolize, when we were called to fraternal 
and sympathetic co-operation. We have abandoned vast 
fields of truth, art, power, as alien to our religion, when we 
might have transformed these forces and brought them into 
harmony with the highest ideals of faith. ''All things are 
yours, " yet we deliberately surrendered our claim and called 
most of the precious values of humanity "secular." The 
church is not outside social problems; it is not benefactor or 
patron; it is not alien to the world; the church lives upon 
industry, its children are born from natural impulses in holy 
and legal wedlock, its security is derived from government and 
law, its ritual is enriched by poets and musicians, its sins 
are those of its age, its vision of truth is widened by science 
and education, its morality is the best custom of the time, its 
picture of heaven is composed of democratic and neighborly 
experiences of friendship, its God is defined as Father or King. 
We as Christians are, like St. Francis, brothers of the poor 
and even of the birds, and we are here to co-operate with all 
men of good will. 

Here we must consider, first, the possible resources of the 
church for this purpose; secondly, the defects of the church 
and the explanation of these defects; thirdly, illustrations of 



712 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

progress in the church toward reahzing its duty and its oppor- 
tunity; fourthly, the wisest direction for the near future. 

I. RESOURCES OF THE CHURCH 

The greatest book of Hfe is the Bible, to whose exposition 
the church is committed, and whose story of truth and faith 
is one of the chief forces of history. 

The Bible. — So far as the church is studying and teaching 
the Bible, in a truly historic spirit and method, it is generating 
interest in human welfare. There are two tables of its law, 
reverence for God and regard for man; both are assimilated 
and authorized in the Golden Rule of Jesus and illustrated 
by his character and life. 

Inspiring personalities. — So far as the church, under the 
leadership of an educated ministry, knows its own history 
and holds before its children its heroes and martyrs, its 
missionaries and its philanthropists, it is generating fervor and 
zeal for sinning and suffering humanity. Church history and 
biography supply a magazine of ennobling and inspiring per- 
sonal examples. Church history is a precious possession and 
a treasury of spiritual energy. 

Literature. — Christian literature is a vast and fruitful 
store of motive to kindly and beneficent action. In hymns, 
poems, essays, in Dante, Luther, Milton, Tennyson, Brown- 
ing, Shakespeare, Webster, Macaulay — ^in all the most 
powerful authors of Christendom there runs a deep Christian 
undertone. 

Christian literature is in a very high and true sense a 
continuation of the Bible. We need anthologies, source- 
books, and a library of selections with historical annotations. 
Much of the ''written stuff" of the Fathers and mediaeval 
theologians does not deserve the name of ''literature," and 
the people have not time to read it nor money to buy it nor 
houseroom to store it. Yet it is a pity to leave the jewels 
lost in the mass of rubbish, speculation, and superstition 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 713 

which makes up so much of the writings of the past. Only 
when the real classics in prose and verse have been selected 
and reprinted by competent scholars, in chronological order, 
with historical sequences noted, will this spiritual inheritance 
of the church come into its rightful place of power and influ- 
ence. 

But God has not left himself without a witness in other 
lands of high culture. India, China, Japan, and even the 
proverbial philosophy of Africa, have literary monuments of 
religion, and they also are ours to use and enjoy. 

The pitiful mediocrity of much contemporary so-called 
''religious literature," its waste and desolation of miserable 
sectarian polemics, its obscurantism and dull platitudes, 
might well give way to the buried and forgotten literary treas- 
ures of the world. 

The personal influence of the members of the church in 
the home and throughout the community. — ^We may well 
count the personal influence of the members of the church 
as an asset. Discount with the severest justifiable criticism 
the conduct of Christians, they are nevertheless the salt of the 
earth, the light of the world, though, unfortunately, they 
often hide their lamps under a bushel and bury their talents out 
of sight. The exertion of influence reacts upon character, and 
he who earnestly endeavors to make his neighbors better 
instinctively criticizes his own standards and conduct. The 
army of church members are citizens and voters, masters of 
assemblies, judges on the bench, presidents and directors of 
corporations, members of clubs and associations, and trade- 
union lawmakers and administrators ; and this gives the church 
access to every legitimate organization of the nation. Such 
a power is also a responsibility. 

Educational agencies. — The educational equipment of 
the churches is enormous. All the modern systems of educa- 
tion and research grow out of ecclesiastical institutions of the 
Middle Ages. Cap, gown, and hood are reminders of the 



714 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

uniforms of learned monks of the ancient days when clergymen 
monopolized scholarship. Now we are on the way to the 
time when ''all God's people will be prophets," and democracy 
has taken over education and made it universal. But even 
now lay control does not imply irrehgion. When the atmos- 
phere is flooded with light, no window can open without 
admitting its radiance; and while Christianity shines every- 
where, it will not be excluded from state institutions. We can 
therefore count practically all the agencies of science and 
education among the resources of the church. One may 
gain some idea of the extent of these educational resources 
by taking the statistics from the report of the United States 
Commissioner of Education concerning schools, colleges, and 
universities under church control. 

2. DEFECTS OF THE CHURCH 

The humane impulse of primitive Christianity is partly 
obscured and obstructed by fruitless and excessive specula- 
tion without ethical aim; by war for domination rather than 
by devotion to service; by ecclesiasticism and fanaticism; 
by making ceremony an end; by priestly ambition; by 
clinging to an excessive individualism and the laissez-faire 
philosophy and practice which was the idol of the eighteenth 
century. 

It is not agreeable for us to analyze our defects, yet it is 
wholesome and necessary. An ancient Greek statesman told 
the people after a military defeat that if they had done their 
utmost he would despair of his country ; but that they had not 
employed their best powers, and that if they would rally with 
all energy and devotion the day could yet be saved and 
honor restored. The church has amazing undeveloped re- 
sources; its wastes would furnish capital for world-conquest. 
The correction of its errors and the joyful acceptance of its 
obHgation would make it invincible. And therefore the loyal 
servants of the churches must deal with themselves critically 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 715 

and earnestly. Rather than bring indictments against one 
another let us searchingly examine ourselves and revise 
our methods. Why should we not sincerely, earnestly, and 
without equivocation bring our leadership before the bar of 
impartial justice by asking ourselves such questions as these : 
Have we concentrated our studies and sermons on the essen- 
tials of Christianity or have we lavished energy and time on 
topics in controversy among the faithful? If we should 
subordinate sectarian enterprises to the cause of missions 
in regions which have never heard of Jesus Christ and his 
gospel, would not millions of dollars be employed construc- 
tively rather than destructively ? If the Christian people of a 
village or town would support one strong minister instead of 
starving four or five uneducated men, would there not be 
fewer mockers at the superstitions of the church and more 
institutions of charity, rational recreation, and ennobling 
education ? If the fanatical zeal which now divides Christen- 
dom into warring camps were to be devoted to improving the 
dwellings of workingmen and providing social centers for 
youth, would not the world's skepticism be changed into 
admiring faith ? If Christianity were presented in revivals as 
a consecration to the cause of elevating and enriching man's 
estate, and not merely as a selfish and absorbing desire for 
individual salvation, would this not be a convincing demon 
stration of the divinity of the message ? If a blue pencil were 
drawn through every line of sermons which did not tend to 
increase love, peace, justice, and wisdom, might not the 
discourses suffer only in length while they improved in form 
and attractiveness? If ministers would exclude from their 
Hbraries the tomes which are unscientific or an ti scientific, 
the works which intensify bigotry and fill the head with errors 
and platitudes, might not many of the graduates of high 
schools and colleges be attracted to church attendance who 
■ now remain away because they are amazed by the ineptitudes 
and anachronisms of a traditional and outworn teaching? 



7i6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Are there not hundreds of communities which lack pubhc 
spirit, common aims, facihties for culture, because the churches 
remain apart and refuse to do teamwork ? Are our ministers 
prepared by their education to grapple intelligently with the 
colossal moral problems of business men, and do they not 
too generally limit their instruction in righteousness to petty 
personal relations or to vociferous denunciations of the sins of 
ancient Israel ? Are not the average business man, farmer, 
and mechanic compelled to decide most of the problems of 
duty without any real intellectual help from the church? 
How much of this failure is due to cowardice, or to ignorance, 
or to preoccupation with merely ecclesiastical or even clerical 
schemes which have not the slightest bearing on the matters 
of life and death, of daily anxiety, of inner spiritual struggle 
to know the right? How much is due to the conventional 
training of pastors which still is under the influence of the 
monastic ideals which were nominally overturned by the 
Reformation ? 

Whatever may be the causes, all who are not blind to 
the facts must see that the church and the ministry are too 
small a factor in the ethical tumult and anarchistic struggles of 
our age in spite of our resources. 

3. SIGNS OF PROMISE 

The day is breaking in the east 
Of which the prophets told, 
And brightens up the sky of time, 
The Christian's age of gold. 

It is more agreeable to call attention to the evidence 
that the leaders of the church are awakening to a sense of their 
privilege and duty and summoning the disunited hosts to 
co-operative action. 

The zeal for reformation. — The apostolical succession of 
servants of humanity has never once been broken; in all ages 
lofty spirits have protested against abuses and recalled Chris- 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 717 

tians to the essentials of faith. In the darkest night of the 
ages a flickering lamp burned on many an humble altar. 

The renaissance of a humane Christianity was not pro- 
duced by individual saints, but it was the outgrowth of a life 
which was in the church from the beginning and which mani- 
fested itself in men of genius and also in millions of gentle and 
obscure persons who lived without renown and rest in nameless 
graves. No one sect can claim the entire honor for this 
revival. The Roman Catholic church has its galaxy of 
pure spirits — St. Francis, Elizabeth of Thuringia, St. Vincent 
de Paul, Frederick Ozanam, and many others. The Society 
of Friends, true to their name, gave us George Fox, Elizabeth 
Fry, William Penn, and the poet of the ''drab-skirt muse," 
John G. Whittier. The Methodist movement gave us the 
Wesleys. We hardly care to recall to which sect belonged 
Wilberforce, John Howard, the Earl of Shaftesbury, John 
Ruskin, Florence Nightingale, Octavia Hill, Thomas Carlyle, 
for they are just human. 

The Unitarians never could boast great numbers, but 
their William E. Channing and Theodore Parker compelled the 
ecclesiastical world to think of the workingman, the- slave, 
the drunkard; and they helped us all to see that an arbitrary 
and heartless tyrant, even if armed with omnipotence, cannot 
really be worshiped as God. Biblical criticism undermined 
the dogmatic foundations of the church and compelled 
believers to seek refuge in God himself rather than in a book 
about him, or in a creed, however valuable these are as wit- 
nesses and instruments. 

German economists became our allies when they insisted, 
with Wagner and Schmoller, that gains must rest on a basis of 
justice, and that the iron law of supply and demand ought to 
be directed by a righteous and intelligent purpose. 

Missions. — Foreign missionaries went out to save men 
from future punishment and found the people in Africa and 
parts of the Orient in a present purgatory. Compassion for 



7i8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

the multitude who were as sheep without a shepherd took 
possession of them; and while they told of God, heaven, and 
redemption they taught the people to plough a deeper furrow, 
to weave a better cloth, to use quinine against malaria rather 
than sacrifice to devils, to treat women with courtesy, and to 
educate their children. 

Perhaps it could be shown that missionaries abroad were 
pioneers of the social work of the church. Charles Dickens 
did something by holding up to ridicule those who sent 
blankets to the naked blacks of tropical Africa while they 
left starved children to freeze in the slums of London; but 
on the whole his caricature was unfair even then, and since 
he wrote the methods of missions have been rapidly improved. 

Medical and educational missions have given a start to 
the modern movements in the Orient and brought countless 
millions to the door of hope and light. These inspiring works 
have not only been the most convincing demonstration of the 
divine life in Christianity, a veritable revelation of its essence, 
but they have reacted upon the methods of the churches at 
home and made them more sensible, practical, and persuasive. 

Literature. — See the literature cited in chap, viii, p. 481. 

Co-operation and federation. — Over against the unhappy 
and wasting divisions of the church we set the establishment of 
powerful institutions which represent unity and co-operation. 
There have been various overtures from ecclesiastical digni- 
taries to the "sects," with amiable invitations of the tiger to the 
kid, *' to lie down inside "; but these have not been taken seri- 
ously, however kindly meant. There have been conventions, 
conferences, eloquent speeches in favor of unity, not without 
some result. But the most direct and effective movements 
have let church union wait for some immediate, urgent, and 
imperative service to humanity. The temperance movement 
has brought together members of all denominations for the 
common defense of youth, virtue, and rehgion from the 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 719 

brutalities and degradation of the drink traffic. The union 
Sunday-school conventions and associations have mobilized 
the forces of the whole Christian church for the religious educa- 
tion of youth, and the Rehgious Education Association has 
brought to this agency the resources of modern biblical scholar- 
ship and of the art of education. The Young Men's Christian 
Association by no means satisfies the demands of modern 
fellowship ; its creed basis excludes many of the finest spirits 
of our faith; but it has gone as far as its supporters have yet 
been ready to go, and in the right direction; it has gradually 
developed a ministry to the whole man — body, mind, and 
spirit; and it seems nearly ready to move forward, with due 
caution, beyond individual aid, into the field of public service. 
The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ is also restricted 
in its organization by the fears and traditions of godly men, 
and yet it also has brought into effective co-operation a vast 
multitude of members of the popular branches of the Chris- 
tian communion. In several states the home missionary 
societies have advanced, only too slowly, to a position of 
comity, courtesy, and economy, where they refuse to sub- 
sidize the strife and vainglory of sectarianism. These 
movements, significant and valuable already, are still more 
hopeful in indicating the direction of future enterprises. 

4. THE WISE DIRECTION OF EFFORT IN THE NEAR FUTURE 

The problems of the next century will be solved more 
easily if we attend strictly to our present urgent duty. The 
pillars and roof will be firm only as the foundation is sure. 

The requirements of social welfare in the present age are 
determined by the facts of this age, as already sketched. 
The church cannot and ought not to work out a separate pro- 
gram of its own. The consensus of experts in each branch 
of social science is the nearest possible indication of duty. 
The isolation of the church makes its efforts barren. The 
leaven must be mixed with the dough ; the seed must be buried 



720 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

in the soil. Even Catholic Europe has frequently abolished 
monasteries; and it would be atavistic return to barbarism 
to adopt a monastic or conventicle ideal for the church. The 
duty of the leaders of the church is to become acquainted, 
as well as they can, with the best methods known for advan- 
cing the physical, economic, and spiritual welfare of the home, 
the neighborhood, the town, the commonwealth, the nation, 
the world. The beginning of wisdom is to know more and to 
cease to waste time on idle controversy and speculation. We 
shall find inspiration, worship, in the Bible; but we must seek 
duty in the relations of the age in which the Creator has placed 
us, as our fathers sought for it in their situation. The day of 
domination of the state by ecclesiastical authority has passed. 
Clerical interference in political parties is resented, and rightly, 
because clergymen have no professional qualifications for this 
task. But there never was an age when religion and religious 
personalities were more needed as an influence, when the 
church had such a splendid opportunity to inspire men of 
action and power with hope, faith, and charity in their colossal 
and often discouraging tasks. 

The characteristic social task of the church ministry of 
religion. — The church with its ministry has the most vital 
part in social service; it must have a theology which honest 
and intelligent men can understand and believe. It must 
help people to a reasonable moral view of God. It must 
have something wise and persuasive to say about the Divine, 
about sin, prayer, the hope of immortality. To help men 
to see God is the highest and most precious social service. 
The church must keep alive this belief until the whole world is 
civilized and refined enough to appreciate it. In doing this 
work science must be respected in its field; no doctrine of 
faith, or prayer, or miracle must contradict the universality 
of the causal principle on which all knowledge rests. We 
must not ask a man of science to stultify his reason in order to 
worship and hope. We must teach men to find God every- 



' CHRISITANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 721 

where and not merely in the inaudible, exceptional, and 
extraordinary. We must be rid of magic, and keep mysticism 
in its place as poetry, and learn the ways of science. The 
seer and the poet and the preacher need not fear exact knowl- 
edge if each remain true to his own call. 

The essence of theology is its doctrine of friendship as the 
spirit of the universe. All the arts of music, liturgy, oratory, 
poetry, painting, architecture, sculpture, city planning, are 
most glorious when they help humanity to trust, to hope, to 
love; and the church holds a unique place in this world of 
beauty and idealism. No newspaper, no secular or ethical 
club, can ever compete with it, if it knows how to help men to 
see God, to love and reverence him, to exult in hope. 

The promotion of social reforms. — In the improvement of 
physical, economic, and political conditions the churches have 
a different duty to perform, and a less direct. But what they 
can do is great and is urgently needed. Sermon, song, and 
teaching may quicken the conscience, kindle pity, compassion, 
remorse, and kindness. At this point the study of social 
science will furnish the church leaders with an inexhaustible 
supply of illustrations long after books of '^ religious anec- 
dotes" and ''feathers for arrows" have been worn out. The 
newspapers and magazines paint stories, but they lack the fire 
of religious fervor to give momentum to sacrificial endeavor, 
and newspapers cannot organize institutions and train workers 
as the church can. Numerous groups of scientific specialists 
exist who possess knowledge but who have comparatively 
few votes; the federated churches have millions of voting 
members, with vast and widely diffused political influence over 
the entire nation; but they have no authority in social science. 
A good understanding between the expert groups and the 
multitudes who profess a reHgion of benevolence and justice 
would be fruitful, and it seems to be at hand. The American 
Association for Labor Legislation, the American Prison Asso- 
ciation, the National Conference of Charities and Correction, 



722 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

the National Child Labor Committee, the Consumers' 
League, and others have long invited the co-operation of 
pastors, recently with much success. 

The church has opportunities of instruction in social 
duties which belong to no other institution. The sermon can 
do something, but cannot deal with technical problems. Dis- 
cussions in social meetings, classes, and societies are the 
most effective means of training the members to think socially, 
to consider the claims of justice in all relations of life. 

Literature. — ^A list of most important societies may be had from the 
Russell Sage Fomidation, 102 East Twenty-second Street, New York 
City. The Survey, published weekly, gives an excellent review of cur- 
rent activities in all fields, indispensable to anyone who will march with 
his American contemporaries. See W. N. Hutchins, Graded Social 
Service for the Sunday School (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 
19 14); C. R. Henderson, Social Duties from the Christian Point of View 
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909). Josiah Strong, 
The Gospel of the Kingdom (New York: Bible House), supplies lessons 
and helps each month in the year. See also Directory of Speakers on 
Municipal Problems, published by the Department of Social Betterment 
of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities. The Federal Council of Churches 
of Christ in America offers a program for study and action and the 
social-service committees of various denominations seek to enlist groups 
of students. 

The ''social evangelist" may have his uses as the indi- 
vidualistic revivalist, if sane, has his place; but the serious 
and lasting work will be done in small groups of careful 
students, for educated leaders are afraid of the mob mind and 
seek quiet discussion. The leaders of these groups must 
ultimately be trained for their task in colleges and universities; 
they will be specialized ministers of churches. Groups of 
churches will combine to support them; one competent man 
in a populous county could direct the serious discussions of 
hundreds of leaders under a proper system of co-operation. 
It would be absurd to require that every pastor should be 
competent to guide studies over such vast fields. The church 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 723 

will learn to specialize in religious leadership just as the uni- 
versities, the great industries, and all other successful 
organizations have done. 

The need of workers. — Yet it will be entirely possible, and 
it is highly desirable, that all educated men and women, 
ministers included, during their course of instruction in second- 
ary school, college, and professional school, should receive 
preparation for intelligent co-operation in the works of good 
citizenship. A curriculum has already been arranged for the 
accomplishment of this purpose, as mentioned above, and it 
includes a liberal provision for language, science, history, and 
Hterature. 

The church can send laborers into the harvest ; theological 
students, a few; but multitudes of others. There is not an 
effective society of philanthropy which does not cry out, often 
in vain, for helpers. These helpers must be prepared for their 
duties, and there are educational institutions prepared to give 
the necessary instruction and training for social service. 
Many churches could select promising young people and pro- 
vide for their professional education as directors of play- 
grounds, probation officers, charity visitors, librarians with a 
missionary spirit, social secretaries, teachers in reform schools, 
managers of clubs for youth, residents in settlements. 

Literature. — Mary E. Richmond, Friendly Visiting among the Poor 
(New York: Macmillan, 1899) and The Good Neighbor in the Modern 
City, 7th ed. (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1913); Graham Taylor, Religion 
in Social Action (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1913). 

Social politics. — The most perplexing problems before the 
church which undertakes to exert any influence whatever on 
*' social politics" and the material and cultural interests of the 
wa:ge-earners are those of trade unions and socialism. The 
problem of the liquor traffic is comparatively simple, because 
the financial interests involved are so plainly in recognized 
antagonism to order, security, health, morals, and religion. 



724 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

But the ^' labor question" divides the nation into two camps, 
and there is no present outlook for agreement. 

So far as charity is concerned, there is no very bitter 
controversy, except when the philanthropists regard it as a 
substitute for justice and settle down in contented satis- 
faction with their alms-deeds. Scientific charity itself in our 
time dispels the illusion of the finality of gifts, and its matter- 
of-fact records point to low wages, exhausting toil, poisonous 
air in workshops, reckless disregard of life in mines and on 
railways, unequal taxation and '' tax-dodging," exploitation of 
consumers and laborers, as among the chief causes of misery, 
the ''extravagance" of the poor and alcoholism having been 
greatly exaggerated in this connection. 

Welfare work. — ^''Welfare work" on the part of employers, 
as an expression of sincere kindness, awakens some protest, and 
is not received with enthusiastic satisfaction by the working- 
men; they regard it, in the main, as an element of minor 
importance, even when it is not used to distract workingmen 
and win them away from their own unions. 

The real issue is one which we are loath to face, and one 
which we can meet only with adequate knowledge, sympathy, 
and sober judgment. Who is to control the conditions of 
labor and the distribution of the product ? 

Literature. — Suggestive studies are found in J. G. Brooks, American 
Syndicalism (New York: Macmillan, 1913); A. W. Small, Between 
Eras (Kansas City: Intercollegiate Press, 1913). See generally the 
literature of Socialism. 

Socialism. — The scheme of socialism needs to be under- 
stood by Christian leaders, for nothing does greater harm than 
misrepresentation. Common objections to socialism are 
that it would mean equality of income; destruction of the 
right to hold and enjoy private property; perhaps community 
of wives and rearing of children by the state; atheism; a 
monotonous dead level of culture. None of these things 
belongs to the essence of socialism, although various socialistic 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 725 

writers have indulged in all sorts of adventures in these 
directions. Any definition of socialism is likely to be chal- 
lenged; but perhaps we may say that the essence of socialism 
is the demand that all wealth used for social production should 
be under social control. This means that the managers of 
industry, commerce, and banking should be employees of the 
commonwealth and responsible to the people for their conduct 
of affairs. It would be the extension of control by representa- 
tives of the people, not only over law and government, but 
over business. The product of industry would not be divided 
at the will of capitalist managers, nor by vote of the operators 
in particular industries, but under control of representatives 
of the entire public. Apparently there is no immediate 
prospect of this radical and revolutionary scheme being 
carried out. But there is a marked tendency to realize 
the principle of social control one step at a time, as in the 
supervision of powerful corporations by public utilities 
commissions; the Interstate Commerce Commission and 
courts; municipal ownership and management of water 
works, street cars, gas and electric works; the federal post- 
office, parcel post, and federal telegraph and telephone 
service; obligatory insurance of all kinds under public 
regulation. 

The whole system of public inspection and regulation of 
factories, mills, mines, and railways to protect the life, limb, 
and health of employees is an expression of a determination 
to use the power of the government to restrict the arbitrary 
and irresponsible abuse of power by capitalist managers. 
The swift extension of social insurance means in part taking 
profits and dividends to add to wages; giving to the men who 
work hardest and suffer most a more adequate support and 
share in the heritage of civilization. Social insurance means 
that life is to be made secure and free from deadly worry and 
gaunt care, without dependence on uncertain and humiliating 
charity. 



726 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Literature. — The literature on socialism is so enormous that we 
can only select a few representative titles. The following will serve 
to introduce the general reader to this phase of industrial philosophy and 
effort. Kirkup, A History of Socialism (New York: Macmillan, 1909); 
Sombart, Sozialismus und soziale Bewegung, 6th ed. (Jena: Fischer, 
1908; English translation by Epstein, Socialism and the Social Movement 
[New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1909]); Rauschenbusch, Christianity 
and the Social Crisis (New York: Macmillan, 1907); Podmore, Robert 
Owen (London: Hutchinson, 1906); Hillquit, History of Socialism in 
The United States (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co., 19 10); Ensor, 
Modern Socialism (New York: Harper, 1908); Hunter, Socialists at 
Work (New York: Macmillan, 1908); Orth, Socialism and Democracy 
in Europe (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1913). A good classified 
bibliography is given in Skelton, Socialism: A Critical Analysis (Chicago: 
Charles H. Kerr & Co., 191 1). 

Common wealth. — The multiplication of public libraries, 
parks, museums, and schools signifies that modern democracy 
intends to bring the blessings of the higher realms of culture 
within reach of every living soul. The condemnation of 
crowded and insanitary dwellings is a policy widely accepted, 
and it will include municipal ownership of houses wherever 
the self-interest of capital fails to provide decently for the 
homes of men. The federal income tax, with its exemptions 
of the poor and its progressively increasing levy on super- 
fluous revenues, is an expression of the determination of the 
people to curb and restrict luxury so long as millions of manual 
workers have not enough to eat. Inheritance taxes have 
more than a mere financial purpose ; they are a means deliber- 
ately adopted for the redistribution of earned and unearned 
fortunes, and a notice to the heirs of wealth who toil not nor 
spin that it will be well for them to learn a trade. 

In all this economic movement there is something deeper 
and nobler than physical hunger; there is a sense of justice, 
an ideal of brotherhood. Such legislation is too calm, steady, 
and secure of its aim to be under control of envy and revenge 
or anarchistic passion; it is the largest, finest, and most 
effective method of expressing solidarity, fraternity. So 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 727 

far from being a brief madness, this policy is the slow growth 
of centuries of discussion, and gradually has changed senti- 
ments, customs, laws, and constitutions in all civilized lands. 
Perils of progress. — ^While leaders of the Christian church 
should study these modern policies intelligently and sympa- 
thetically, they should also be critical and able to understand 
the perils and difficulties of reform, especially of a radical 
and revolutionary plan like sociaHsm. For direct popular con- 
trol and administration of the complex industries of modern 
times the masses of the people are yet unprepared; the dif- 
ficulty of securing competent managers of large affairs is seen 
in the failure of many of our political ventures in industrial 
fields. We must get our training as we travel forward, and 
must learn from our mistakes ; but the general direction of 
progress is made clear by noting the historical movement 
for social control over a period of several centuries. 

Literature. — R. Fulton Cutting, The Church and Society (New York: 
Macmillan, 191 2) (with many concrete examples of church activities); 
S. N. Patten, The Social Basis of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1911) ; 
A. M. Trawick, The City Church and Its Social Mission^ with bibliog- 
raphy (New York: Association Press, 19 13); W. H. Allen, Efficient 
Democracy (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1907); Joseph Mazzini, 
The Duties of Man {London: Chapman, 1862; New York: E. P. Button 
& Co., 1907). 

Fellowship in religion the crown of all progress. — Social 
service culminates in the fellowship of rehgion. Rehgion does 
indeed, as we have insisted, stimulate us to love all our fellow- 
men, to do good as we have opportunity, to use all our 
resources and all institutions to promote the economic, 
physical, aesthetic, scientific, political well-being of mankind. 
Thus far religion is a powerful means to a noble and rational 
end, toward which God himself is working with us and in us. 
And the church as the chief school of rehgion cannot neglect 
the task of applying religious influences in the cause of 
humanity. 



728 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Yet religion is a good in itself and the highest, not merely a 
means to promote other ends; and the specific, characteristic 
function of the church is not that of promoting science, art, 
or preventive medicine; there are special institutions for 
each of these worthy objects, and the church has no call to 
meddle with their administration. 

As one of my honored colleagues has said : 

We need the church, a community of men in which we interchange 
the faith of our heart in living, mutual fellowship with the hearts of other 

men The certitude of our faith depends upon the discernment of 

itself in others' hearts; the endearment of our faith is increased by 
seeing the enlargement of our faith. .... The very satisfactions which 
are achieved by the functions of religion can become our possession only 
in case that religion be not means but end as well.^ 

The climax of the social service of the Master was not in 
healing the sick and giving sight to the blind, but in preaching 
the gospel to the poor. And who are so poor as the rich who 
know not God ? 

^ G. B. Foster, The Function of Religion in Man's Struggle for Existence, 
1909. 



XII. THE CONTRIBUTION OF CRITICAL SCHOLAR- 
SHIP TO MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 

By GEORGE BURMAN FOSTER 
Professor of the Philosophy of Rehgion, University of Chicago 



ANALYSIS 

I. The method of modern education. — "Calling" and "voca- 
tion."— :Tlie secularization of the minister's profession. — ^The 
advantages of modern methods. — ^The dangers of secularization. — 
The value and the danger of efficiency. — The modem experience of 

doubt 730-742 

II. The task of theology. — Theology and vocational demands. 
The need of the scientific spirit in theology. — How does the 
scientific study of theology equip the preacher? . . . . . 742-751 



XII. THE CONTRIBUTION OF CRITICAL SCHOLAR- 
SHIP TO MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 

I. THE METHOD OF MODERN EDUCATION 

The essentials of a school are teachers and students. 
According to our new education, the primary office of the 
teacher is to teach, not thoughts or things, but human beings. 
He is not a superior being whose aim is to impart authoritative 
information to inferiors, sustaining to him the appropriate 
attitude of submission, passivity, and docility. Renouncing 
aristocratic aloofness, he becomes his students' guide and 
friend, developing their energy, independence, initiative, and 
resourcefulness. Learning hy doing is the slogan in our 
modern schools as against the old watchword of learning by 
being told or taught. 

Accordingly, pupils are put in direct relation with reality 
instead of with symbols of reality. The content of life and 
environment is the subject-matter which they study. It is not 
that the student is immediately fitted for some trade or voca- 
tion or profession, but that the material which he examines 
and elaborates is drawn from actual life itself. The new 
education aims to give neither mere ''book learning," as was 
the case with an earlier scholasticism, nor the narrow and 
technical vocational training, as the present-day secularist 
craves, but to develop mind and body, to stimulate inventive- 
ness, and to cultivate a judicial temper and habit, in order 
that the student may be prepared to become a happy and 
useful member of a democratic society. In a word, our new 
general education assimilates itself to the spirit of democracy 
and to the method of our sciences. 

Now, in what respect, if in any, does professional or 
vocational education differ from our ordinary education ? By 

731 



732 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

a professional school is meant an institution where students 
gain control of one specialized field of knowledge, of one par- 
ticular industry or profession or calling — such, for example, as 
engineering, or medicine, or divinity. Professional schools — 
their history reveals this — have usually fallen into the extremes 
of an inherited scholastic ''bookishness" or else of a narrow 
utilitarian practicism. To illustrate in the use of theology, 
this "discipline" was knowledge dissociated from life, a 
thing worth while on its own account, or else it was little more 
than drill in the usages and ceremonies of the church. In 
ages of rationalism and panlogism it tended to be the former; 
it was the latter in primitive and mediaeval times. It may 
be doubted whether medicine and law are second to theology 
as exemplars of these extremes. 

In opposition to this scholastic education apart from active 
life or this technical education apart from broad learning, the 
new education of the ordinary schools unites ideas and practice, 
work and the recognition of the meaning of what is done, 
learning and social applications. Happily, the conviction is 
maturing today that this unity should replace those theoretical 
and practical onesidednesses in our professional education; 
that, advancing into the region of specialism, the matter of 
most importance is not familiarity with the body of ready- 
made knowledge, or skill in manipulating a technique, but 
knowing how to know, skilful in becoming skilful. At 
bottom this means the formation of the kind of character 
and experience which, in their special modification, are 
required for the enthusiasm and service of humanity in that 
special profession. Thus, the primary function of any pro- 
fessional school is the unfolding and maturing of the right kind 
of man for the right kind of work. Both the school's science 
and practice are simply means to that end. It is neither 
the knowledge nor the practice in their abstractness, but 
the knowing and doing personality that is society's valuable 
asset. 



SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 733 

Now, it is in the light of such considerations as these that 
the serious problems of our theological education may be 
approached. 

"Calling" and "vocation." — There is a distinction — not 
philological, but historical and real — ^between the words 
''calling" and ''vocation." The significance of this dis- 
tinction leads to the heart of our problem, so worthy of thus 
studying in a large way. Historically speaking, calling is 
providential, vocation is optional; calling is religious, voca- 
tion is moral; calling is a man's by motives deeper than his 
choice, wiser than his deliberations; vocation is a man's by 
his own elective preference. In calling, a minister feels, that 
he is a man of destiny — woe is me if I preach not the gospel; 
I was foreordained and set apart from my mother's womb 
for this work, a work in which the power of the eternal is at 
my disposal, is indeed my power. Without this feeling the 
minister is sure to be shorn of his strength and robbed of his 
greatness among men. But in vocation one is looked upon as 
self-dependent, self-sufficient, self -accountable. To be sure, 
calling and vocation are not exclusive, but the objective and 
subjective, rather the divine and the human side, of the same 
experience. But, historically, they have fallen asunder. At 
the beginning of the modern world Luther and Calvin both 
looked upon a man's work, no matter what it was, as his 
calling — as his by the providential will of God. Thus a 
man's work reposed upon a religious basis. Men were what 
they were, doing what they did, by the power and plan and 
purpose of God. Such a conviction brought strength and 
stay and contentment. But in the eighteenth century the 
religious basis of all secular' callings was undermined. The 
relative historical justification of this critical dissolution does 
not concern us here. The fact is that, along with science and 
art and education, the other orders of life dispensed with their 

^ Aware of the dualism seemingly involved in the words "secular" and 
"sacred," I find it convenient to use them in this discussion. 



734 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

religious foundation, and that capital, machinery, and 
technique came in to take their place. Accordingly, faith in 
the fulfilment of one^s daily task came to repose in the latter 
rather than in the former. 

In all this one may see progress in a certain direction. Per- 
haps the heavens had to be emptied and clouded for a time, if 
men were to realize that they must stand upon the earth, 
develop the resources of the earth, and depend upon them- 
selves. Yet this loss of the religious basis of secular callings 
is largely responsible for the sorry fruits of egoism and 
mammonism, of cynicism and pessimism. It may not be too 
much to say that the world of business needs nothing so much 
as to add to the confidence in technique and machinery and 
money the ancient faith in God, with his providential guidance 
over men's work, and his peace and power in men's hearts. 
Labor needs to supply to its notion of vocation its former 
notion of calling. It watches, but it also needs to pray. 

The secularization of the minister's profession. — Has 
an analogous development gone on in the sacred calling of the 
Christian ministry? Once there was the religious basis 
without machinery and capital — not even a salary! The 
ministry was calling, conscious of God's power and will, God's 
truth and cause, God's providence. The minister spoke with 
authority to the consciences and hearts of men. There was 
an accent of positive conviction that could not be simulated 
or mistaken. Men were made to face the tables of stone, the 
cross, and the great white throne. A supernatural significance 
and awe attached to human life as a probationary place 
of definitive and eternal decisions. The prophet and priest 
of God was a king among men. What has been going on ? 
The sacred calling is duplicating in its own way the experience 
of the secular calling. The calling becomes a vocation. To 
be sure, this is but a ''moment" in the total secularization of 
all life, which seems to be the set program of the modern world. 
The sacred calling is becoming de-supernaturahzed and, in a 



SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 735 

sense, de-spiritualized. So is its technique. But one sees 
in this great change the method of the evolutionary process 
fully illustrated. Life, characteristic of one era, survives 
increasingly unproductive and moribund, in the subsequent 
period, committed to new growths and species. At length 
such life of the old order ceases in fact as it had already 
ceased in principle. This is true in the sphere of the higher 
life and processes of which we are thinking. Thus in prin- 
ciple — though not yet entirely in fact — the divinity of the 
historic sacraments is gone, and of ministerial grace from 
ordaining hands ; gone is the origin of the sermon in the Holy 
Ghost — the open-your-mouth-and-it-shall-be-filled theory of 
preaching — the naive and primitive trust in divine afflatus; 
gone is the preacher's living upon the capricious gratuities and 
donations of a flock who felt that it was their place to keep him 
poor, God's to keep him humble — both prerogatives now 
arrogated to themselves. More serious still, the divinity of 
his church, of the doctrines and morals of his sermons, of the 
Head of the church, of the specific God of his theology — these 
too are gone, and with them the old miraculous supernatural- 
ism of regeneration and sane tifica tion and perfection . Indeed , 
these words are quite unintelligible to the modern man on the 
street and almost obsolete in the terminology of the theo- 
logian. What is taking the place of all this that once consti- 
tuted the religious basis of the ministerial calling ? In part, 
technique, machinery, capital, especially organization with the 
correlate of scientific efficiency of the churches "in manipulating 
them. The dream is of a scientific ministry instead of the old 
religious ministry. The minister is not so much prophet and 
priest of God as an administrative officer of a philanthropic 
and humanitarian institution endowed by capital, which he is 
competent to execute. The church is not a temple, but a 
*' plant." The idea seems to be gaining favor that if men. 
are fed and clothed and sheltered and washed and amused they 
will not need to be redeemed with the old terrible redemption. 



736 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

In somewhat harsh antithesis, to be sure, one may say that 
not supernatural regeneration, but natural growth; not 
divine sanctification, but human education; not supernatural 
grace, but natural morality; not the divine expiation of the 
cross, but the human heroism — or accident? — of the cross; 
not the supernatural spiritual brother, but the natural bodily 
brother; not the invisible religious communion of saints, 
living and dead, but boys' clubs and men's clubs and social 
settlements, all run in the use of technique, machinery, and 
capital, with scientific efficiency clinically learned in a divinity 
school; and not Christ the Lord, but the man Jesus who 
was a child of his times, not God and his providence, but 
evolution and its process without an absolute goal — that all 
this, and such as this, is the new turn in the affairs of religion 
at the tick of the clock. It is the change that is going on 
from the old minister to the new, from the old church to 
the new. 

The advantages of modern methods. — Now, is this 
progress ? In a sense, yes. It was progress in the secular. 
The machine makes shorter hours possible, leaving time for 
possible personal improvement and social intercourse. A 
larger population can be provided for, and so forth. 

The same is true of the church with modern appointments 
and appliances, money and organization. We have but to 
think of how much better religion can be taught in the use 
of modern pedagogy; or of how much more systematically 
and wisely scientific charities can be administered; of how 
organized parish visitations can be carried on; of how the 
problem of the boy can be solved; of how church services 
can be conducted with beauty and finesse. All this is good and 
will doubtless grow better. Besides, the beliefs of the church 
which constitute the substance of the sermon are readjusted 
to fit more harmoniously into the sum of modern convictions. 
We shall not be able to go back behind all this in the world of 
the church any more than in the world of business. 



SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 737 

The dangers of secularization. — But, for all that, we have 
the problem on our hands in the secular world as to whether 
machine and capital are primary, and personality and human- 
ity secondary, or whether it is the other way around; the 
problem of whether man is for the sake of vocation or voca- 
tion for the sake of man — the problem of man's spirituality 
and freedom and worth. But. this problem can never be 
solved until there is the restoration of the long-lost religious 
basis of secular life. It is not science, it is faith, the com- 
munion of all men in and with God, that can make man the 
lord and not the slave of capital and machine and organiza- 
tion. Only so can there cease to be the hard dominion of 
thing over person. Once again the laborer must return to the 
conviction that his vocation is a calling — ^his calling by the 
will and providence of God. 

A similar relationship needs to be maintained in the world 
of the sacred between the primary worth of personality 
and the instrumentalities and institutions of the church. 
The real church of God is a spiritual and invisible communion 
of religious faith. The real church of God is super-institu- 
tional. As man, any man, is more than a "member of 
society," is super-social from the point of view of a social 
organism, that is, is a child of God, so the calling of the minister 
is more than so-called ''social service," and has to do with 
that deep of man which cries unto the deep of the being of 
God. There was a lonely hour at the brook Jabbok when 
Jacob's family and flock were out of his mind, the peril of his 
angry brother forgotten, his heart corroded by no mordant 
memory — a lonely hour in which he cried: ''Tell me, I pray 
thee, thy name," the Ineffable Name. He wanted to know 
the eternal mystery and meaning of existence. Not so-called 
"social service," but the ministry of the interpretation and 
the satisfaction of this inexpugnable and abysmal need of 
man, is the supreme and inalienable function of the Christian 
minister. And this is a work where the peculiar worth of 



738 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

personality, religious personality, entirely dissociated from all 
the technique and machinery and capital of the whole ecclesi- 
astical entity, is paramount. It were well to realize in thought 
what a reduction of human nature and human need there 
would be were man to be abridged to a point where what 
could be done for him by ''social service" with its instru- 
mentalities could satisfy him. Man has untranslatable wealth, 
super- vocational vastness and verities and relationships. So 
has the minister; and it is this super-vocational overplus 
that is the best part of the minister, and that lends chief 
charm and value even to the minister's vocational activity 
itself. 

The value and the danger of efficiency. — It is in the light 
of this larger perspective that one can evaluate the most 
characteristic watchword of the modern world — efficiency. 
The educational and ecclesiastical circles have borrowed it 
from the commercial world. It must be admitted that there 
is much value in the maxim. It is opposed to sloth. In the 
concentration and solidification which it requires, it dis- 
courages the spirit that reflectively divides the inner self and 
leaves it divided. And it emphasizes courage. To be sure, it 
is the courage to face rivals in the market place rather than 
the courage that meets one's own spiritual enemies. But 
for all that we know in our hearts that this modern watch- 
word is profoundly unsatisfactory in every sphere of life, 
particularly in the Christian ministry. What this watch- 
word does not emphasize is the significance of self-possession ; 
of lifting up our eye to the hills whence cometh our help ; of 
testing the life that now is by the vision of the largest Kfe that 
we can image and appreciate. In a way that appeals to a 
superficial populace with quantitative standards it emphasizes 
results rather than ideals, vigor rather than cultivation, 
temporary success rather than wholeness of life, the greatness 
of him that ''taketh a city" rather than of him that "ruleth 
his spirit." It points to a shallow pragmatism, missing 



SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 739 

the pragmatic depths. In its current signification it is not 
correlated to man's deepest needs — needs which, from the 
point of view of this word, are super-efhcient. Men are 
indeed suffering from poverty and dirt and disease, from 
manifold industrial and social evils. The minister must 
indeed sustain positive relations to these evils. But the 
worst evil is not such sufferings. The worst evil is spiritual 
destitution. Men are suffering far more from the loss of 
God and of the moral imperative than from the lack of bread 
and work, of recreation and amusement. What can silence 
the voice of the heart's pain? What can introduce a man 
defeated, lonely, bereaved, defenseless, into the region of 
eternal truth, eternal rest, eternal peace? ''Efficiency'* 
cannot answer such questions. These are questions common 
to all time. But our time is indeed an age of doubt, more 
widespread and more basic than the premature prognosticators 
of an age of faith seem to be aware of. The new world began 
in doubt. First there was a doubt of the church and of its 
divine authority. A violent devastating storm swept over 
popular life. The storm was speedily exorcised. Again — 

The sea of faith 
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore 
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. 

Then from the old doubt a new faith emerged, like sweet 
waters in a bitter sea, and kept man a living soul. 

The sea is calm tonight; 
. The tide is full. 

The tide of the new faith was the faith in the Bible, and in the 
doctrines derived from the Bible, but this tide went back to 
sea, and now one only hears : 

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar 

Retreating to the breath 
Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear 
And naked shingles of the world. 



740 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

The human spirit urged a new, mightier protest against the 
''It is written/' which was said to put an end to all doubt. 
The new doubt, as protestant science, as free inquiry, flung 
down the gauntlet to the old Bible faith. No page of the 
Sacred Book remained unscrutinized. Only one certainty 
spread from this new doubt — the certainty that the Sacred 
Book was a human book. Therefore allowing and ever 
rejoicing in the moral and religious value of many a page, 
the biblical canon as such had no right to rule over man. 
Man was the book's judge; the book was not man's 
judge. The book must be measured by man's truth, man's 
conscience. 

The modem experience of doubt. — How, now, should the 
timorous heart of man be quieted in the presence of this new 
doubt ? At once new props were offered — for one thing the 
state. What the church was to the mediaeval man the state 
became to the modern man — God manifest in the flesh. 
Men believed in their state as in their Christ. All power 
in heaven and on earth seemed to be given to it. What was 
preached in the name of the state was a gospel. It seemed a 
sin to doubt the wisdom of the state at all. It was blasphemy 
to contest the state's claim to omnipotence. Good ? What 
is good if not that which benefits the state? True? But 
where is there truth apart from the word that is the ipse dixit 
of the state ? The political end sanctifies any means. 

Then a great change began. Historic study and the doc- 
trine of development, together with the new ideals of per- 
sonality and humanity, decomposed the old theory of the state. 
Modern man came to see that the state does not possess 
eternal life. The state is only a special form in which human 
social life can exist, not human society itself. There have not 
always been states. They came to be in the long course of the 
evolution of a people's life. What comes to be must pay its 
toll to Father Time. The state will change — and pass. 
Thus its inerrancy and finaHty were discredited. If we 



SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 741 

doubt the church, why not the state too ? Man's tottering 
life could not be braced up by either. 

Then new props were offered man. What science recog- 
nized as " true," what morals and bourgeois customs recognized 
as ''good" — these were offered him. "Trust the light of 
science, and you shall indeed have the light of life; do what 
is ' good ' and you shall indeed be crowned with the crown of 
life." This was the watchword. Then there stirred in the 
womb of present-day humanity the last, ultimate, uncanniest 
doubt. If we doubt faith, why not doubt science too ? If 
we doubt the church, the Bible, the state, why not doubt 
reason, doubt knowledge, doubt morality? Even if what 
we call " true " be really true, can it make us good and happy ? 
Is not that which is called "good" grievous impediment in 
our pilgrimage? Law, morals — are not these perhaps a 
blunder of history, an old hereditary woe with which humanity 
is weighted down ? Was Stendhal right perhaps in his judg- 
ment that " the only excuse for God is that he does not exist " ? 

Here — here is the agony of the modern world. But what 
can our current "efficiency" do here — "efficiency" with its 
technique and machinery and money and organization ? At 
this point the tragedy of life passes beyond the help of such 
things and of institutional religion. Is there no help for lost 
souls any more ? The minister who cannot cope with this 
deepest need of the modern man may organize superficial and 
often impertinent reforms, but he cannot give the bread of 
life. He may minister to bodily wants — good enough in its 
way — but he leaves the soul in its bewilderment and forsaken- 
ness. In the end he loses confidence and abandons his funda- 
mental task. Our fathers thought of the Christian minister 
as prophet, priest, and king. This watchword "efficiency" 
tends to restrict the ministerial function to that of king. But 
the need of the times, as of all times, is satisfied more fully 
by prophet and priest. In sum : the great question is not that 
of efficiency, but of the criterion of efficiency. It would be the 



742 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

minister's sin against the Holy Ghost, which hath never 
forgivenness, were he to truncate and abridge the nature and 
need of man so that our institutionahzed rehgion of scientific 
efficiency could sustain an easy correlation thereto. 

II. THE TASK or THEOLOGY 

Thus conceiving the function of the ministry in the 
terrible religious situation of the modern world, the utility 
of the study of theology in our divinity schools may be 
estimated. 

Theology is the science of faith, of religion. Of this 
statement much more needs to be said than can be said here. 
While science and religion are both expressions and aids of 
human life, they are different in form and function. Briefly 
expressed, religion experiences, science calculates; religion 
creates, science discovers; religion ventures, science weighs. 
Science avails itself of concepts and categories and laws; 
religion, of symbols and pictures and' parables. 

Assuming that theology is a science, a practical difficulty 
at once confronts us. Can theology be at once scientific 
and ecclesiastical ? From the ecclesiastical point of view the 
aim of theology has been to clarify and increase the Christian's 
intelligence as regards the content of his faith; to evince the 
living power of the Christian religion, and to bring this home 
to bear upon life through preaching, teaching, and Christian 
communion. From the scientific point of view theology seeks 
to be free from the control and needs of the church, to be 
determined sqlely by the truth-interest, by the impulse to know 
reaHty, and to regard no law but its own, and no authority 
save the compulsion of its subject-matter. Since the second 
Christian century those two poles, the ecclesiastical and the 
scientific, have never vanished. But it may be doubted 
whether they have ever been in equilibrium. Usually the 
one has been emphasized at the expense of the other. Indeed, 
theology is usually under a cross-fire from both science and 



SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 743 

faith — disowned by science, distrusted by faith. One may 
recall its mediaeval dignity as queen of the sciences, as science 
was then understood; but since the rise of the modern scien- 
tific method, theology came to be but compassionately toler- 
ated by the representatives of the exact sciences, doubted by 
many of its own representatives, and incriminated by the laity 
as the primary cause of all the evils with which the church of 
the present was infested. It was thought that in satisfying the 
requirements of science theology betrayed the interests of 
religion. Hence the question became acute: Can theology 
be at once scientific from the point of view of science and 
serviceable from the point of view of practicable Christianity ? 
Is the study of theology a sufficient or even a suitable prepara- 
tion for the office of preacher and pastor? Does theology 
destroy the preacher's message, lower the preacher's piety, 
impair the preacher's usefulness ? 

Facing the problem thus fundamentally one may be 
permitted to dismiss certain superficial or captious objections. 
For example, it is pointed out that the scientific study of 
theology in a divinity school has occasionally impelled students 
to abandon the ministry. Such abandonment may be due to 
the popular theology and nominal Christianity in which he 
was indoctrinated before he went to the divinity school; 
or the student, as was the case with Emerson and Kant and 
Hegel, may enter upon a larger human service than that 
which a local church could afford. Besides, the occasional 
abandonment of the ministry under the influence of scientific 
theology does not discredit such theology, if it is seen to be 
in general useful, any more than would be the case in the 
analogous situation of law or medicine. But if it be true — as 
sometimes true it is — that now and then a theological student 
makes shipwreck of faith, even this disaster does not constitute 
a decisive objection, since this is a world where such shipwreck 
is possible from many causes, one of them being the absence of 
sound theological training. 



744 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

Other objectors ask : Why is it that so many students who 
have studied scientific theology cannot preach ? It might 
not be amiss to inquire whether they could preach if they had 
not studied scientific theology. As a rule the academic and 
technical character of the young minister wears away as the 
years bring him experience and maturity, suffering and sorrow 
of his own, sickness and death of others. His fault is more 
likely to be a neglect of theological study than a bad use of it. 

But we may pass by such objections and return to the main 
issue. 

Theology and vocational demands. — ^Let us assume that 
theology is in method a ''pure" science, in purpose an 
''applied" science — avoiding the extremes of academic book- 
ishness and of the narrow practicalism of "efficiency." Let 
us grant — as the truth-interest requires us to grant — that 
the purity must not be adulterated by the application. Pure 
science is free science and — in Hegelian phrase, not to be prag- 
matically flouted — has the theoretical self -end of knowledge. 
Now, by virtue of this very character of theological science, 
is there some service which it may render the ministry ? A 
science which serves the "self- cognition of spirit serves thereby 
one of the supreme, practical ends of life, which is self-realiza- 
tion of spirit. Only an officially infallible church can do with- 
out the aid of such science. Ministers, like politicians; are 
especially tempted to debasement of the truth-interest— 
to sham learning, sham religion. The great sin of ministers 
can easily be the infraction of the ethics of the intellect. 
Theological science is developing a fine sincerity in our relation 
to both theology and religion. Such honesty and sobriety 
of judgment are among a minister's best assets in our age of 
doubt. They go toward the formation of personaHty, which 
is at once the primary need of man and the main concern of all 
education. 

Should theology be restricted to the so-called applied, or, 
better perhaps, vocational sciences, as some divinity schools 



SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 745 

seek to do, a problem of no little gravity would arise. Would 
the new vocationally determined science be any more free 
and pure than the old authoritatively determined science ? Is 
not a post-determined science by an end externally imposed 
as prejudicial to the critical occupation of the scientific 
spirit as a predetermined science by a cause or authority which 
proscribes freedom and dictates conclusions ? Is the pull of an 
aHen finalism any better than the push of an alien mechanism ? 
If authority-science gives doctrine and not truth, does not 
vocation-science give practice and not truth? There is 
something here that should be borne in mind lest we impair 
the truth-interest, so inalienable to our highest life as students 
and ministers. Extremes meet, and it would be an ugly situa- 
tion were ''authority" and ''vocation" to combine upon us 
in such a way that our natural impulse to know should be 
wounded and weakened. This evil may be avoided by honor- 
ing the study of scientific theology as corrective and supple- 
mentation of vocational science, ever inclined to deteriorate 
to an immediate and narrow professionalism. 

The need of the scientific spirit in theology. — But theology 
in all its branches — historical, psychological, philosophical — 
as "pure " science does serve the vocational ends of the minis- 
try, even if it does not directly and consciously aim to do so. 

For one thing, it is indispensable to a reasoned understand- 
ing of what religion really is. In defining anything one speed- 
ily turns to see how it came to be and what it is for. Thus, 
one knows a religious idea, or a religious deed, only as one sees 
how it has historically and psychologically emerged, and what 
function it fulfils in a people's or an individuaFs life. Besides, 
one requires to know the relation between idea and action in 
religion, the order of the emergence of magic, cult, myth, idea, 
doctrine, and their relations to each other. Especially 
does one need to know how to face the problem as to what is 
primary and what secondary and impermanent in religion. 
It appears that religion is not exhausted as a short circuit 



746 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

to the real by way of instinct and feeling. The science of 
religion shows that there is a deep truth in this. Most of 
the best things in life are rooted in instinct — which is perhaps 
just another way of saying that we are still ignorant of their 
precise conditions and causes. But religion, if it is worth 
while, is not merely a matter of instinct and emotion. It is a 
legitimate part of man's rational nature. The substance 
of religion is not in the ceremonies and creeds and institutions 
which have been built up in connection with church, but 
in man's consciousness that the best part of him lies in his 
ideals and in his earnest and sincere efforts to -realize these 
ideals. It is the recognition that the spiritual center of gravity 
of his life lies, not in what he is or has been, but in what he 
feels that he ought to become. The only study that leads us 
into this most needful insight for our work as preachers is that 
of scientific theology. 

But, for another thing, such study yields impressive 
testimony to the human cry for God. That cry — whether 
joyous and triumphant, or painful, pathetic, poignant — 
reverberates from land to land and from century to century. 
The very import of human history is its mysterious and uni- 
versal urgency and awfulness. Whether it be the vague 
cosmological gropings of a primitive animism with its crass 
anthropomorphizing of duty and personification of inanimate 
objects; whether it be the passionate searching out of concepts 
or essences by Socrates, Plato, and the Scholastics, with their 
confident assurance of the existence of an archetypal reality; 
whether it be the blended love and fear with which the intense 
and mystical Semites worshiped Yahweh and dared finally in 
the Greatest of the Hebrews to claim Divinity itself; whether 
it be the masterful executive ability with which the mediaeval 
ecclesiastics sought to embody a spiritual world in a temporal, 
even in a political hierarchy; whether it be the refreshing 
directness with which the Protestants sought to re-establish 
an immediate relation of the believer with his God; whether 



SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 747 

it be the pathetic attempts of modern apologists to reconcile 
Genesis and Darwinism, or the wistful admission of the man of 
science that he has scanned the heavens with his telescope 
and found not God — ^whether it be one or all of these earnest 
and honest endeavors of man to understand his world and 
his own experience, the study of theology makes us recognize 
throughout, always and everywhere, the search for the unity 
and contuiuity of the life and love of man with an eternal 
and fatherly God. The value of this world-old and world-wide 
witness to the minister of religion is obvious. It is quite the 
fashion in some modern circles to pride one's self on one's 
unbelief — though why what one does not believe should be 
so admirable is not so immediately evident. It is much more 
to the point, one would think, to pride one's self on the number 
of truths one had found at the core of current superstitions. 
But it is only through the study of theology in all its branches 
that one acquires the judgment and skill to make such dis- 
coveries. 

How does the scientific study of theology equip the 
preacher? — ^With these general considerations in mind we 
may very well close by isolating for special remark those 
specific questions which were raised a moment ago. 

The first of those questions is the effect of the study of 
theology upon the definite message of the preacher. 

Biblical infallibility now abandoned, the idea that the 
source and certainty of the preacher's message are rooted 
in God's dictation and donation of truth is no longer tenable. 
The props that upheld him in the old orthodox days are 
virtually all gone. The easy gift of authoritative truth has 
been denied him once for all. The study of a deposit of truth 
must give way to the search for reality. 

The case is quite the same in this regard if one turns from 
orthodoxy to rationalism, which undertook to replace the 
finished and final truth of revealed and authoritative biblical 
rehgion. According to rationalism, the human mind possesses 



748 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

a priori a sum of theoretical and practical ideas, untarnished 
by the corruptions and contingencies of experiential origin, 
from which absolute truth may be easily deduced. A religion 
of reason, consisting essentially of the ideas of God, of free- 
dom, of the moral law, and of immortality, supplemented the 
religion of revelation at first, but subsequently became a forum 
before which the truth and error of all positive historical 
religions were adjudicated. The task of the old rationalistic 
clergyman who expounded the parsimonious content of truth 
inborn in his own reason, and skilfully demonstrated its agree- 
ment with Christianity, was simpler and shorter than the task 
of the orthodox clergyman burdened with the study of biblical 
languages, with exegesis and harmonizings with creeds and 
confessions. But the intellectual and critical movements 
of the modern world have remorselessly demolished this naive 
rationahsm. As to those innate ideas, John Locke searched 
the infant mind and reported that he could not find any of 
them. He found that ideas are of temporal and empirical 
origin. Thus their fij^ed and eternal truths were under- 
mined. Kant followed with his proof that the content of the 
religion of reason could not be object of rational knowledge, 
but only of faith. The outcome was that the authority of 
reason went the way of the authority of the Bible. All 
finished and fixed authorities fell, even that of conscience, 
since it too was unfinished and temporally and spatially 
conditioned. Of all this earlier mention will be recalled. 

In all these ways the task of the minister grew more diffi- 
cult, more grievous. In the absence of easy donations of 
truth from an inerrant book, he must seek and try and doubt 
and test, with an open and candid truth-loving spirit. The 
study of theology becomes more important than ever. This 
importance consists, not simply in the ascertainment of the 
truth, but especially in the formation of a religious person- 
ahty. Through historical and philosophical study of the 
dissolution of orthodoxy and of rationalism the student reca- 



SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 749 

pitulates and epitomizes the terrible experience of doubt, learns 
that religion is ever changing, ever in the making, and thus 
becomes personally prepared to meet the needs and difficulties 
of our age of doubt and transition and growth. It is not 
simply truth, but the truthful man, tried in the fires of critical 
theological research, that can win the confidence of our 
bewildered and discouraged religious life. Men who ask 
whether Christianity is final or transient, even whether religion 
is an illusion or a verity, cannot abide an answer from those 
ministers who have themselves never asked in anguish, and 
who cannot answer with sincerity out of the earnestness and 
courage of their own hearts. 

Reverting to the question of the influence of theological 
study upon the personal piety of the student, the possibilities 
are the dependence of piety upon theology — in which case 
theology could conceivably destroy or sustain piety; or the 
dependence of theology upon piety, faith, religion, with the 
reverse alternative to the former; or, finally, the complete 
or partial independence of the two. Representatives of each 
of these possibilities have been numerous in the history of the 
church. In the end theology annihilates faith — so the second- 
century church maintained against Clement the Alexandrian 
theologian, and so Overbeck, for example, argues in recent 
years. Moreover, many a theological student feels as if the 
critical work in the classroom of a scientific theologian was 
a deadly assault upon his faith. 

Were this indeed true there would be no help for it, since 
science cannot submit to quarantine from any region of reality 
that is accessible to examination, and since a faith that fears 
scrutiny is already enfeebled through self -distrust. For all 
the future, it would seem, the piety that resists research is 
foredoomed to atrophy. Indeed, part of the purpose of the 
study of theology is to subject our piety to the laws of survival. 
But while some divinity students make shipwreck of faith — a 
possible price to be paid to the right of science — the usual 



750 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 

outcome is a destruction, not of faith, but of the inherited 
form of faith. As a rule the student ^closes his years of 
special study with his faith purged and strengthened, and 
adapted as never before to nourish and hearten him for the 
battle of life and the fulness of service. Ceasing to be a quan- 
tum of past beliefs, his faith becomes an interior attitude of 
his spirit, which science cannot take away. 

The opposite position — ^advocated strenuously in recent 
years by Bollinger — is quite out of harmony with the philo- 
sophic temper and thought of our new day. Its thesis is that 
theory precedes practice, that knowledge is the foundation of 
practical piety, that knowledge of God is the prius of faith in 
God, finally, that this knowledge is not traditional (in which 
case there would be no way to decide whether it was true or 
false), but demonstrative. It is clear that such a contention 
is a reversion to an obsolete rationalism with -its theistic 
arguments and the like. 

Admitting, as a truth at which it hints, that there is an 
intellectual '^ moment" in the religious consciousness, still one 
of the great merits of scientific theology is its recognition that 
the way to God is not proof, but prayer; that we know God 
because we have faith in him, rather than have faith in him 
because we know him. Modern theology has probably done 
no more important service than to clarify this problem. 

There remains the possibility for which no less men than 
Kant and Schleiermacher stood, as have many RitschHans, 
namely, the reciprocal neutrality of theology and piety. 

Extreme as this position is, there is an important distinc- 
tion between rehgion and theology, a distinction in form 
and function. Suffice it to say here that one of the purposes 
of the study of theology is to acquire a thorough understand- 
ing of this whole matter. Otherwise it would hardly be 
possible for the student to escape confusion and aberration. 
Failure to make such an escape would later yield the injurious 
result of misleading his church into a piety without knowledge 



SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 751 

or a knowledge without piety, or an identification of the two — 
an evil to which the pages of church history bear impressive 
witness. The distinction, for instance, between the living 
real God and a concept God is vital to peace of mind and to 
the power of the gospel today. 

With reference to this whole question, it may be said that 
usually the candidate for the ministry — young though he 
may sometimes be — enters the divinity school as a finished 
religious and theological product, but that in consequence 
of his studies there he departs unfinished, growing aware that 
his personality, with its religion and its theology, are alike in 
the making. A divinity school that achieves such a result has 
fulfilled its function in the life of the human spirit. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Absoluteness of Christianity, 555 ff. 

Acts, Book of, 194. 

Alexandrian theology, 62, 318. 

Anabaptists, 400 flf., 402. 

Ancestor- worship, 40. 

Animism, 38. 

Anselm, 67, 349. 

Apologetics, modern task of, 478, 
541 ff. 

Apologists, 300 ff . 

Apostolic authority, 314, 316, 330. 

Aquinas, 349. 

Archaeology andHebrew history, 1 28 f . 

Architecture of churches, 603. 

Arminianism, 416, 419, 470. 

Assurance, 536, 549 f. 

Augustine, 66, 342. 

Authority, 75 f.; of the Old Testa- 
ment, 150; of the New Testament, 
234; of the apostles, 314, 316, 330; 
of the pope, 346; modern revolt 
against, 433 f., 447 f.; attitude of 
rationalism toward, 454; in theol- 
ogy, 488, 494 f-, 541; in preaching, 
583; in church polity, 595 f. 

Baalim, 138. 

Baptism, 294, 320, 334, 551, 553. 

Baptists, 425 f. 

Bible: use of, in theology, 148 f., 
232 f., 496 f., 555; use of , in preach- 
ing, 157 &., 235, 5835.; use of, 
in education, 652, 658; and social 
problems, 684 f. 

Biblical criticism, 23 f., 120 f., 204 f., 
208, 220 ff., 230, 460 ff. 

Biblical theology, 149, 229, 555. 

Bourgeois social mind, 70. 

Calvin, 383 f. 

Calvinism: in Geneva, 384 f.; in 
Scotland, 387 f.; in the Nether- 
lands, 389 f.; in France, 392; in 



Germany, 394; estimate of, 395; 
controversies in, 418 f. 

Canon: of the Old Testament, 144; 
of the New Testament, 224 ff., 310. 

Catholicism, 68, 73; rise of, 315 ff., 
330; development of, 329-55; ideal 
of, 329 f.; Greek, 338 f.; Western, 
339 f.; and the Reformation, 407; 
Counter-reformation in, 406 ff.; 
relation of, to modern thought, 
439 f.; method of theology in, 496; 
ethics of, 564. 

Catholicity, spirit of, in modern 
Christianity, 438 f. 

Certainty, 536, 549 f. 

Charity, 697 f. 

Christian: doctrine development of, 
51 ff.; ethics, 561 ff.; life in early 
times, 298 ff.; life, doctrine of, 
533 ff.; life, training for, 574 ff.; 
socialism, 473 ; union, 480,607^,7 18. 

Christianity: generic, 52, 77 ff.; early, 
241-326; ethics of, 561 ff.; dev^el- 
opmental nature of, 243 f., 493 f., 
558, 684; in the post-apostolic age, 
291; relation of,- to Judaism, 272, 
275 ff., 291 f.; relation of, to the 
Roman state, 293; Western, distin- 
guished from Eastern, 340 f.; prob- 
lem of determining the content of, 
494 ff.; absoluteness of, 555 ff.; in 
relation to other faiths, 559 ff.; and 
social problems, 577, 679-710. 

Christology, 58, 62 f., 283, 296 f., 
302 f., 311, 313, 319 f., 331 f., 335, 
526 ff. 

Church: relation of, to Jesus, 267 f.; 
beginnings of, 274 f.; organization 
of, in Catholicism, S33', relation of, 
to the state, 335 f., 338, 339, 346 f., 
386, 398, 421 ff., 441 ff.; adminis- 
tration, 599 ff.; finance, 605; polity, 
594 ff . ; relation of, to social prob- 
lems, 608 f., 679 ff., 720 ff.; relation 
of, to industrialism, 694 f.; modern 
social mission of, 710 ff.; resources 
of, 712 ff., 716 ff.; defects of, 714 ff. 



755 



756 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 



Churches: organization of, in early 
Christianity, 286, 294; types of, in 
modern life, 594 ff., 599 ff., 604 f. 

College: courses in, leading to theo- 
logical study, 5 ff., 16 ff,; relation 
of, to theological education, 4; reli- 
gious life in, 12 ff. 

Colossians, Epistle, to, 184. 

Comparative religion and missions, 
477. 

Congregationalism, 425. 

Conversion, 670. 

Corinthians, Epistles to, 186. 

Council of Trent, 411. 

Counter-reformation, 406 ff. 

Criticism: textual, 23 f., 204 f., 208; 
historical, 24 f., 120 f., 230, 460 ff.; 
"higher," 24 f., 462; history of, 
220 ff., 461 f,; and theology, 490 f, 

Cyprian, 317, 334. 

Deism, 69, 453. 

Democracy: and theology, 71, 76, 
437, 517; and church polity, 597. 

Denominations, 607 f. 

Diaspora, 249 f. 

Doctrine: development of, 46 ff,, 
51 ff., 72 ff.; in post-apostolic 
times, 295; development of, in 
Catholicism, 330 ff.; relation of, to 
experience, 493, 499 ff., 508 ff., 
524 f., 533; relation of, to preaching, 
586. 

Doubt, 518, 520, 550, 740. 

Early Christianity : sources for knowl- 
edge of, 170-72; environment of, 
177 f., 241 ff.; study of, 241-326; 
scope of, 241 f.; nature of, 243 f.; 
ethical ideals of, 562, 680. 

Easter controversy, 319. 

Ebionites, 270. 

Education, meaning of, 640 ff., 731 f. 

Emperor- worship, 247. 

English Bible, study of, 103, 218. 

Ephesians, Epistle to, 184. 

Eschatology, 141, 287, 538 f. 

Ethics: of early Christianity, 2982., 
562 f.; of Catholicism, 564 f.; of 
Protestantism, 566 f,; modern con- 



ception of, 5695,; and religious 
faith, 573 f.; and preaching, 587 ff. 

Eucharist, 294, 338. 

Evangelistic preaching, 587 f. 

Evil, problem of, 515. 

Evolution: conception of, 8; of reli- 
gion, 30 ff.; of social ideals, 689 ff. 

Experience and theology, 498 f . 

Fetichism, 39. 

Feudalism: and theology, 67 f.; and 

the church, 347. 
Future life, 538 ff. 

Galatians, Epistle to, 186. 

Gentile Christianity: beginnings of, 

277 f,; in the apostolic age, 280 ff,; 

in post-apostolic times, 289. 
God, doctrine of, 44 f., 513 ff. 
Gnosticism, 61, 72 f., 305 ff.; relation 

of, to Paul, 307; doctrines of, 310 ff. 
Gospels, 190 f., 257 f., 290. 
Graeco-Roman world, 59 f., 244 ff. 
Greek: language, 6, 201 ff.; theology, 

57; Catholic church, 338 f. 

Hebrew: language, 6, 85 ff,, 103; 

history, 119 ff,, 133 ff.; religion, 

136 ff,, 679. 
Hebrews, Epistle to, 182, 195. 
Hellenistic social mind, 59 f. 
Hellenists, 276. 
Heresy: nature of, 53, 489, 495; in 

early Christianity, 296. 
Higher criticism, 24 f., 462. 
Historical: criticism, 24 f., 120 ff., 

169, 230, 259, 462 ff.; interpretation, 

170, 177, 223, 229 f,, 458 ff., 493, 
506 ff., 584; method, vi, vii, 21 f., 
26 ff., 166, 223, 329, 458 ff., 492. 

History: value of the study of, 8, 
690 f., 695; nature of, 21, 26 ff.; 
sources for writing of, 21-23; Phi- 
losophy of, 26; of religion, 28 ff. 

Holy Roman Empire, 364. 

Holy Spirit, 56 f., 276, 299, 533 ff. 

Homiletics, 582 ff., 592 f. 

Humanity, spirit of, in modern reli- 
gion, 435- 

Hymnology, 621 f. 



INDEX 



757 



Imperialistic social mind, 64 f . 

Incarnation, doctrine of, 62. 

Independency, 424. 

Industrial revolution, 4^2. 

Industry, development of, 692 ff. 

Inspiration, 669. 

Interpretation: task of, 83, 117 f-, 
1 74 ff . ; of the Old Testament, 145 f. ; 
of the New Testament, 167 ff., 
220 ff.; literary, 175; allegorical, 
176, 220; mystical, 176; dogmatic, 
176; grammatico-historical, 177; 
grammatical, 210 ff.; logical, 213 ff. 

Interpretative bias, 123 f., 255. 

Irenaeus, 316. 

James, Epistle of, 198. 

Jesus: work of, 253 ff.; relation of , to 
Judaism, 253 f. ; relation of, to John 
the Baptist, 254 ff.; problem of as- 
certaining the facts of his life, 
255 ff., 527; messianic conscious- 
ness of, 261 ff.; early interpreta- 
tions of, 267 f.; resurrection of, 
273 f.; modern interpretations of, 
529 f.; social ideals of, 679. 

Jesuits, 408. 

Jewish Christianity, 272 f. 

John the Baptist, 254. 

John: Gospel of, 196 f.; Epistles of, 
197. 

Judaism, 142, 248 ff.; religious insti- 
tutions of, 251; parties in, 252; 
personal religion of, 265 ff.; and 
early Christianity, 272, 275 ff. 

Jude, Epistle of, 198. 

Kant, 454 f . 

Kingdom of God, 138, 154, 323, 329, 

345, 538, 562, 704, 710- 
Knox, John, 388. 

Labor problem, 724, 

Language-study, value of, 5. 

Latin: language, 6; world, religious 

ideas of, 64 f. 
Law: Hebrew, 142; Canon, 348. 
Legalism, 234. 
Lexicography, 88, 201 f. 
Liberalism, 498. 



Liberty: of thought, 414 f., 433; reli- 
gious, 421 ff., 433, 441 ff. 

Literary criticism, 24 f., 104 ff., 230, 
259. 

Liturgies, 614 ff. 

Liturgies, 618 f. 

Logos, 62 f., 303, 331, 335. 

Loyola, 408. 

Luke, Gospel of, 189 ff., 258. 

Luther, 349, 365, 377 f. 

Lutheranism, 363 ff., 369 ff.; in Den- 
mark, Norway, and Sweden, 373; 
in England, Scotland, and Holland, 
374 f.; in France, Spain, and Italy, 
376 f.; theology of, 377 ff.; esti- 
mate of, 379; controversies in, 417. 

Maccabean period, 250. 

Magic and religion, 39 f. 

Manicheism, 320. 

Manuscripts: of the Old Testament, 
91 ; of the New Testament, 206 f. 

Mark, Gospel of, 190 f., 257. 

Massoretic text, 90 ff , 

Matthew, Gospel of, 189 ff., 258. 

Mediaeval Christianity, 329-55, 682. 

Messianism, 55 ff., 140, 261 ff., 272 f., 
287. 

Methodist movement, 471. 

Ministry, types of, 602 f. 

Miracles: of Jesus, 263 f.; in Hellen- 
istic thought, 264; in modern 
thought, 511, 541, 551 ff- 

Missions: in early Christianity, 276 f.; 
Pauline, 284 Jf.; of the monks, 
342 f.; in modern times, 476 ff., 
717 f.; organization of, 6255.; 
problems of, 633 ff. 

Modem Christianity: development 
of, 431-82; relation of, to Catholi- 
cism, 439 f.; relation of, to Protes- 
tantism, 439 f. 

Modernism, 68, 74, 440, 487. 

Modern-positive theology, 502 f. 

Modern social mind, 71. 

Monarchical religion, 42 f., 322 f. 

Monasticism, 337, 342 f. 

Montanism, 320. 

Mystery-religions, 59, 247, 283. 



758 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 



Mysticism, 351, 674. 
Mythology and religion, 47, 304. 

Nationalistic social mind, 68 f. 

New Testament: in relation to the 
Old, 147, 225 f.; study of, 164-238; 
origin of, 180, 220 £f., 314; canon 
of, 220 ff.; value of, today, 228 flf.; 
in relation to theology, 232 f.; in 
relation to personal religion, 233 f,; 
in relation to preaching, 235. 

Nicene theology, 60 ff. 

Old Testament: study of, 83-161; 
religious value of, 144 f . ; canon of, 
144; in relation to the New, 147 f., 
225 f.; in relation to theology, 
148 ff.; in relation to vital religion, 
151 ff.; in relation to preaching, 
157 ff.; theology of, 149 f. 

Ontological problem, 548 ff. 

Origen, 318, 332. 

Orthodoxy: nature of, 55; place of, 
in doctrinal development, 74 f., 
296 f., 486 f.; in the Eastern church, 
338 f.; in Protestantism, 496 f. 

Palestine: geography of, 125 f.; eco- 
nomic resources of, 127. 

Palestinian: Judaism, 250 f.; Jewish 
Christianity, 270 ff., 278 f. 

Papacy, 339, 344 ff., 350 f., 366. 

Pastoral: care, 610 ff.; epistles, 183. 

Paul: letters of, 182 ff.; conversion 
of, 282; missionary career of, 
284 ff.; religion of, 287. 

Penance, 334, 339- 

Persecutions, 293, 321, 333, 442. 

Peshitta, 99. 

Peter, Epistles of, 196, 198. 

Philippians, Epistle to, 186. 

Philosophy, value of, 11; relation of, 
to theology, 48, 72, 514 f.; Hellen- 
istic, 247; modern, 452 ff.; idealis- 
tic and theology, 504 f . 

Politics, relation of, to theology, 48, 50. 

Practical theology, 581-676. 

Pragmatism, 49. 

Prayer, 536, 671. 

Preaching: function of, 522 ff.; rela- 
tion of, to the Bible, 584 ff. 



Presbyterianism, 389, 424. 
Primitive religions, 38, 
Prophets of Israel, 138, 143, 152 f., 
160. 

Protestantism, 359-427; controver- 
sies in, 416 ff.; disintegration of, 
404 ff.; orthodoxy in, 496 f.; rela- 
tion of, to modern thought, 439 f.; 
ethics of, 566 f. 

Psychology: value of, 4, 572; of reli- 
gion, 647, 663 ff. 

Rationalism, 414 ff., 420 ff., 434, 453. 

Reformation: Protestant, 359-427; 
main forces in, 359 ff.; social as- 
pects of, 360; political aspects of, 

360, 367 ff.; intellectual aspects of, 
361; moral and religious aspects of , 

361, 369 f.; in Germany, 364 ff.; in 
Switzerland, 380 ff., 384; Calvinist, 
383 ff.; in England, 396 ff.; esti- 
mate of, 426 f,, 683. 

Reformed churches, 379 ff. 

Regulafidei, 55, 6t, 62, 63, 73, 74. 

Religion: history of, 28 ff.; evolution 
of, 30 f.; nature of, 32 f., 34, 7,6, 46, 
508 ff . ; theories as to the origin of, 
T,y, primitive, 38 ff.; tribal, 40 f.; 
monarchical, 42 ff.; of Israel, 
136 ff., 151 ff.; cosmic significance 
of, 510 ff.; ethical significance of, 
512 ff. 

Religions geschichtliche school, 30, 464. 

Religious education, 640 ff., 663. 

Renaissance, 352, 683. 

Resurrection: beliefs of the early 
Christians concerning, 273 f.; mod- 
ern conception of, 538. 

Revelation: Book of, 194 f.; concep- 
tion of, in theology, 555. 

Ritschl, 456 f. 

Ritschlianism, 500 ff. 

Roman Empire and Christianity, 245. 

Romans, Epistle to, 186, 

Sacraments, 350. 

Sacrifice, 41. 

Salvation, doctrine of, 519 ff. 

Samaritan Pentateuch, 98. 

Schleiermacher, 455, 499, 509. 



INDEX 



759 



Science: value of the study of, 7, 544; 
relation of, to religious belief, 466 &., 

543 ff., 549- 745 ff- 

Scientific method: 7, 433, 44^&., 

544 f . ; and ministerial efficiency, 
730-51- 

Secularism in modern thought, 435, 
733 f. 

Semitic: social mind, 54 ; world, 132 f, 

Septuagint, 94 ff . 

Sermon, modern form of, 590 f . 

Sin, problem of, 521. 

Social: gospel, 539; leadership, 6872., 
699 ff.; movement, 436, 466 £E.; poli- 
tics, 723 f.; problems, 703 ff.; sci- 
ence, 10, 592, 576, 679-728, 699, 
700; workers, training of, 704 f. 

Social mind: relation of, to doctrine, 
51 ff.; Semitic, 54 f.; Hellenistic, 
59 f.; imperialistic, 64 f.; feudal, 
67; nationalistic, 68; revolution- 
ary, 69 f.; modern, 71. 

Socialism, 724 f.; Christian, 473. 

Socinianism, 415. 

Spirituality in modern religion, 435. 

Sunday school, 644, 656 f. 

Supernatural, problem of, 458 f., 
523 f., 551 ff., 543. 

Synoptic: gospels, 189; problem, 
189 ff. 

Systematic theology, 485-561; rela- 
tion of, to the Old Testament, 



148 f.; relation of, to the New 
Testament, 232 f.; task of, 485 ff. 

Targums, 98. 

TertuUian, 316. 

Textual criticism, 23 f., 204 f., 208; 
of the Old Testament, 89 ff.; of the 
New Testament, 204 ff. 

Theological education, organization 
of, V, vi, 4. 

Theology: relation of, to religion, 
46- ff., 51 ; relation of, to politics, 47, 
50; relation of, to philosophy, 48, 
72; relation of, to experience, 493, 
499 ff., 508 ff., 524 f., 533; con- 
structive task of, 75 f., 485 ff.; 
mediaeval, 348 ff. 

See also Doctrine; Systematic 
Theology. 

Thessalonians, Epistles to, 185. 

Tribal religion, 40. 

Trinity, doctrine of, 63 f., 513. 

Ultramontanism, 440. 
Unitarianism, 70. 

Versions: of the Old Testament, 87, 
94 ff.; of the New Testament, 206. 
Vulgate, 100. 

Wesleyanism, 71. 

Worship, problem of, 617, 672. 

Zwingli, 381 ff. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



